In and Out of Reality
by FandomsEverywhereUnite
Summary: "Why is it beeping?" "How am I supposed to know? This thing is ancient." "You're the computer genius." "I know I'm the computer genius, but that doesn't mean-" "Guys." "What?" "Voltron." Or, where the Voltron team stumbles upon an anomaly between realities only to find… Voltron? This is NOT a ship-fic. It just happens to have Klance and Shallura.
1. Business as Usual

**A/N: Hey, guess who found a new fandom! That's right. Me. This fic takes place right after Shiro comes back and before he takes the Black Lion over again from Keith. Everything that happened up until then still happens, but this is a bit of a... divergence. I hope you enjoy it and if you do, please leave a comment because I'm still determining whether or not I'm going to make this into a full work.**

"Ow…" Pidge mumbled, rubbing her head where some damned piece of alien technology had fallen after she jostled the precarious tower. "Who's idea was it to stack electronics on more electronics? Where's the organization?"

She was in a back room that she had accidentally turned into after taking a wrong turn. The door looked like all the rest; there were no Altean words written on top of the frame of beside it to distinguish it from any other entry. When she had pushed on it, it had remained firmly shut. Obviously, this meant that there was something inside worth hiding.

Or the door was just stuck.

After a few minutes of poking and prodding the door, then bashing and busting, Pidge was finally able to get the door open… and was greeted by a dark, dusty room filled to the brim with forgotten technology.

There were boxes thrown this way and that filled with tarnished metal. When she unlocked the hatch on a smaller object, roughly the size of her fist, sad and frayed wires stared back. She reached for a light switch to help her see more of the room, but she bumped into the stack next to her, sending the leaning tower of tech toppling down.

"There is no organization of course!" A chipper voice said behind her. She turned to glare at Coran who had poked his head into the room unceremoniously. "This is a technology dump of sorts."

"A technology… dump?" Pidge asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"Well, yeah. When some contraption broke down, we just put it back here. Why?" He posed the question to himself, stroking his mustache thoughtfully, "I honestly have no clue why we didn't just throw them out."

"You mean, they didn't try to fix things? They just… _tossed_ alien technology into a back room when it stopped working?" Pidge asked incredulously.

Coran looked at her oddly, "Why would we try to fix it if we could just get a new one at the next stop? Alteans were a well-traveled species; going light years just for another transmographer or some such like that was practically nothing to us. If something wasn't easily fixed and was easily found or bought," he shrugged, "we just got a new one."

Pidge looked at him with a gleam in her eyes, "Some of this stuff could still be functional then? This is like, a treasure trove of alien technology!" She grabbed the nearest item and hugged it to her chest almost lovingly. She pushed her glasses further up her nose, "I'll see you in a few days."

Coran shook his head and followed her, "Only you would look at a technology _dump_ and call it a _treasure trove_."

-

Sweat dripped from Keith's face. The training room was far hotter than it needed to be, especially when he was trying to _demolish_ these machines. He swung his bayard from side to side, keeping two at bay while sizing up the last one. His breaths came in short and sharp bursts and a pain in his side, just below his ribs reminded him that he had gotten lazy earlier on and allowed one of them to score a hit.

He closed his eyes to collect himself for a split second, then attacked. The bayard sliced through the air, causing a soft whistling sound as it swung towards its mark. As soon as the sword struck, Keith was already jumping back and to the side, out of the reach of all three.

Just as quickly as he had jumped back, he jumped forward, jabbing the bayard into a weak portion of the gladiator's armor and effectively killing it. He allowed himself a split second reprieve to breathe and blink. His dark hair was partially stuck to his cheek with sweat, and his muscles thrummed with energy.

The two remaining opponents attacked together, coming at Keith from the left and the right and swinging their weapons so that it would hit him from the front and back. His instincts took over as he threw himself to the floor and somersaulted forward, landing back on his feet and spinning.

He surrendered himself to the dance that was battle. His bayard swung in wide arcs and thrust forwards with quick jabs. He blocked and parried both weapons at once, and felt the jolt as his sword stopped mid-swing inside of the gladiator in front of him. Keith let go of the handle quickly and spun through his momentum facing his last opponent.

One left and no weapon.

Keith smiled; he had this. The gladiator attacked first, rushing forward like a bull that had seen red and jabbing the pole like a spear. Keith dropped to the floor and rolled on his side, then he reached up and grabbed the weapon as it passed where he had been standing. His hand slid along the smooth metal for a few moments before his gloves caught and pulled him straight up and back on his feet.

The force from dropping, rolling, and standing so quickly threw off his center of balance, and he was on the ground again, with the gladiator on top of him, still grappling with the pole and thrashing left and right to try and get it. The length made it impossible to roll to either side and gain the upper hand, so Keith threw his legs in the air and used the momentum to flip them over.

With the gladiator between his legs, Keith was able to keep it immobile as he wrenched the pole from its grasp and thrust it quickly into the single glass eye and watching as the machinery went dark beneath him.

He panted heavily, the sweat dripping from his brow into his eyes and stinging them. He rolled off of the pile of metal and onto the cold floor, staring up at the ceiling and letting the fresh air wash over his body.

"End training sequence." Keith breathlessly spoke feeling as the gladiator's bodies dropped around him. He groaned and stood up, stretching his burning muscles to that they didn't cramp up later.

"I bet I could take on four." A voice said behind him, and if he weren't already trying to catch his breath and control his breathing, he would have groaned. Instead, he simply leaned further into the stretch and closed his eyes willing Lance just to disappear.

Unfortunately, the impossible wouldn't pass today, "Maybe I could even take five or six." he continued wistfully. "I don't think I could take seven; I mean, even I have limits, but I could most definitely take on four."

"Under any other circumstances, I would love to watch you get your ass handed to you by a couple of robots." Keith sighed and turned to glare at the paladin who was blocking the way back into the hallway, "But right now, I just want to stretch and take a shower."

Lance laughed and moved into the room. His olive coat caught the air and took up far more space than it needed to. Keith bent down, pulling his head to his knee trying to find comfort in the ache that was making itself apparent.

Lance snorted in mock disgust, "You're so sweaty. Why don't you just accept that guns are better than swords and save yourself from feeling disgusting?"

Keith sighed again, "Because I can't control my bayard just like you can't control yours." He moved to his other side, his forehead resting on his knee. The sweat drifting up his face was odd but slightly comforting. He smiled as he blew a small stream of air onto his overheating skin. "And, swords are so much cooler than guns."

"Uh-huh." Lance said doubtfully, "I'm absolutely sure you're wrong."

Keith closed his eyes; there was no getting out of this conversation, "Prove it."

"What?" Confusion played across Lance's face, "What do you mean 'prove it'? It's a fact of life. Guns are better than swords just as _I_ am better than you." He said, pointing at himself and Keith alternatingly.

"If you can't prove it, then it can't be true." Keith said, "Swords are better because when you fight, you flow. With a gun, you just stand there."

"Well, then guns are better because you don't get all sweaty. You don't have to smell your enemy's breath. You can just chill with a nice glass of lemonade as you kill your foes."

Keith stood up and shrugged, pulling his arm across his chest, "You can think what you like. Everyone's entitled to their own stupid opinion." He fought to keep the smirk off his lips, but it was a losing battle, so he turned before Lance could see. His red jacket was in the corner of the room, and he picked up his red bayard on the way.

"Um, excuse you, but _I_ think you're entitled to _your_ stupid opinion. Guns are better." Lance called after him.

"Swords are better, and I need to shower." Keith said, swinging his jacked behind him, "But sometime later, I would _love_ to watch you take on six of those bastards."

-

Lance sighed as he watched Keith walk away from him down the hall. His back was drenched in sweat, and his mullet looked wet and slicked back. One of his hands had moved to his side where he had taken a hit earlier on in the fight, but other than that, there was nothing that bespoke that he had been fighting three robots just a few moments before.

Lance turned into the room and took off his olive jacket, tossing it to the floor and taking out his bayard which immediately took the form of his gun. The weight was familiar in his hands, and he breathed easily; he could do this.

"Start previous sequence." He spoke into the empty room. Everything was quiet for a few moments before three gladiators fell from the ceiling and crashed around him. They were spaced equally: one in front of him, one behind and to his left, the last behind and to his right.

Wasting no time, he shot a beam into the one immediately in front of him and ran towards it to make more room between the other two and himself. Range was key when you were fighting with a gun, and your opponents were all mele.

In front of him, the gladiator emdodged/em his shot. What the hell? They had never done that before. What difficulty had Keith set these damn machines to?

Every other thought flew from his mind as the bot in front of him started swinging the pole _really fucking fast_ right at Lance's face, and Lance was running _full speed_ into the swing. He felt the panic rise and catch in his throat, and all he could focus on was the pole, pole, pole.

By some stroke of luck, the fact that his legs gave out underneath him saved him from the impending broken face. He fell to one side, and his useless legs caught the gladiator's and took the bot down with him. Maybe they were good for one thing. He had managed to hold onto his bayard during his fall, so he aimed it straight at the single lit eye that stared back at him.

There wasn't a lot of dodging a robot could do at point blank.

It's head literally exploded with a flash of white and orange light. A few pieces of shrapnel flew off in different directions, and one of them burned a line into the skin right on his cheekbone. Lance didn't feel any pain, which he thought was odd because it had hit him right below his left eye which is a pretty damn important part of his body. All that he felt was heat followed by chilling cold. He knew that things could get cold enough to burn like if you stuck your hand in ice water, or lied in the snow for a while. Could things get so hot that they got cold? Or was that just that it had gotten really hot and then the air cooled it down to the-

The other two gladiators were still running towards him with their pole weapons held at the ready. Lance shot twice as he gracelessly clambered to his feet and backpedaled away from the two of them. He was already breathing heavily. Damn it, he just ran for a short burst and got up off the floor; he should not be winded at all.

Of course, the two gladiators dodged the two shots that were fired back at them. Of course, they couldn't make Lance's life any easier by just dropping dead. Of course, Keith had them set on some ungodly level of proficiency. Of course.

"¡Quédate y muere!" He shouted in frustration, shooting several more times and finally hitting one of them in the arm, throwing it off balance and slowing it down enough to focus on the other one.

The other one which was right on top of him.

Lance huffed as the cold metal slammed him into the ground. His bayard flew from his hands and skidded across the floor. The smoothness of the floor allowed it to skid several feet away from him.

Lance groaned under the gladiator. It was over; he was without a weapon, the castle would drop him and deactivate the sequence.

The gladiator was still moving.

Weren't they supposed to stop when the weapon was released? No, that wasn't right. Keith had fought that last one without his bayard and without the sequence shutting off. The robot was now right on top of him, straddling Lance's hips and raising the pole-weapon above his head, getting ready to slam it down.

Panic thrummed through Lance's body. He was a ranged fighter, in hand-to-hand combat he was as good as useless if not detrimental. He threw his body weight left to right to dislodge the robot from above him. The gladiator swung down, and Lance dodged the best he could to the left. He felt the emwhoosh/em of air as the weapon slammed right beside his head.

"¡Para!" He screamed, trying to push it off of him. Nothing happened, "Fuck! Uh- end training sequence!" The light from its lens instantly went out, and the robot collapsed on top of him. He struggled to get the dead weight of the cold metal off of him, "Bájese de mí." He groaned.

Without further ado, the lifeless metal rolled off of him and fell through the floor. He had killed one. Out of three. And he had told Keith that he would take on six.

Fuck him.

-

"Lance, you in here?" Hunk called into the empty room. His voice echoed back to him an answer. "Guess not." He sighed; Lance wasn't in the kitchen, the dining hall, the pool, Hunk's room, the bridge, or his room.

Pidge was too wrapped up in her new finds to pay much mind to him and just pointed to where she had last seen him. Coran had been watching Pidge and offering what little insight he could to help her figure out the machine, and he had shrugged unhelpfully. Allura hadn't seen him since lunch; Shiro hadn't seen him since breakfast.

Hunk moved down the halls to look for Keith; maybe Lance had stopped to bother him again. He rounded the corner to the training room only to see… Lance? Lying on the floor.

"Lance? Buddy? Are you dead?" He walked toward the still figure and saw just in time for Lance to comically stick out his tongue and take a deep breath, ready to hold it. The yellow paladin laughed before feigning sorrow, "No, my friend!" He fake-bawled, holding Lance's head to his chest, "How will I ever move on? He will never know that I figured out how to program his favorite dish into the goo. He will never taste paella again!"

"Paella?" Lance's eyes flew open, and his forehead slammed into Hunk's. After the brief amount of pain, they both dissolved into laughter.

"I thought you were dead." Hunk monotoned.

"Paella is enough to bring me back from the dead any day," Lance said, getting to his feet. "Did you really figure it out?"

"Yeah," Hunk shrugged, "The goo machine had a little bit of difficulty with the flavor of muscles because, for some reason, none of these other alien species eat filter feeders. The flavor of shrimp was easy, and so was the rice. It's not going to be the same, obviously, but it's as close as you're gonna get to it."

"Yesssss!" Lance dragged the 's' out and pumped his fist in the air, "I am going to live off of this stuff for the rest of my life. I hope you know that."

The yellow paladin laughed, "Yeah, I figured as much. Anyways… Do I even want to know why you were lying pretending to be dead on the floor just now? I've been looking for you for an hour or so."

Lance groaned, "I'm fucked, Hunk. I'm so fucked. I saw Keith fight these three training robots and I told him that I could fight six no problem. Because, that's just what I do, y'know? BUT, instead of following his usual trend of just ignoring whatever I say, he actually registered that I said that I would fight these six guys.

"I'm already thinking 'Oh, shit. What did I get myself into.' But, now it's too late to back out. So, as soon as he leaves, I start the same sequence that he ran and do you know how many I managed to take out?"

"Guessing from your enthusiasm, I'm going to say zero." Hunk provided.

Lance's face fell in faux hurt "Why do you have so little faith in me? I managed to take down one. I slowed one of them, but the last guy caught up with me, and he knocked my bayard away from me. The training sequence is supposed to end right? Wrong. The moron Keith had the training bots set to a really high difficulty _and_ didn't let the sequence end when you become disarmed. So, I not only _told_ Keith that I could take on six guys, which I clearly can't, but now he _expects_ to see me fight them.

"I can't lose because that shows that I'm not as strong as I bragged to be, and I can't back down from the challenge either." Lance bemoaned, sharing his dilemma. "And I can't win either. I can get 1/6. That's like, so little. It looks like my only option is to fake my death."

"Because we both saw how successful that was." Hunk laughed, "I'm sure it's not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal? Hunk, how could you say that?" He said aghast, "If I lose this bet, then I won't have any proof that guns are better than swords. I'll be wrong two times over. Keith would never let me live it down."

"I think that he'll let you live it down; Keith doesn't hold things over people's heads."

"But _I'll_ know and that's the worst. Because _I_ know I failed, and I know that _he_ knows I failed, but he's too good of a person to actually point out that I failed." Lance let himself drop to the floor and whispered, "I'm fucked."

Hunk smiled and sat on the floor next to him, "Yeah." He sighed breathily, "But I don't want your problems to outshine the fact that I figured out how to make paella." He picked Lance up easily and swung him over his shoulder walking to the dining room. "So, you're going to suck it up and enjoy my genius."

Instead of fighting his way out of Hunk's bear hug, Lance let himself go limp and sway with his gait, "You know, you sound a lot like Pidge."

"Yeah, it's not often that I figure something out that surpasses her, so I'm going to tell you to enjoy my genius as long as you love paella."

"GUYS!"

"Speak of the Devil." Lance groaned as Hunk dropped him to the ground.

Pidge came running around the corner yelling, "Check this out!" She had a smooth object in her hands. It was the shape and color of an egg, but much larger, although it looked light. There was a small blinking green light at the base of it, and an incessant red light that seemed to move with her movements, always pointing in the same direction.

"What did you find?" Hunk asked genuinely intrigued, "What does it do?"

"I don't know, and I don't know." Pidge answered, but the excitement in her eyes was undeterred, "But watch the red dot." She moved the object in several different directions, and there was no lag time between when it moved and when the dot moved. "I got the green one to turn on earlier today, and when I moved on and came back, there was a new dot. The red one just appeared less than an hour ago. The coolest thing? I think it's some kind of homing mechanism."

"But what is it homing onto?" Lance asked scratching his hair.

"That's the coolest thing. I have no idea." Pidge answered, and she was jumping with her enthusiasm. Her body wasn't meant to contain this much energy.

"If you have no clue what it's homing to, then why are you so excited?" Hunk asked confusedly.

Pidge stopped darting around the hall to glare at Hunk as if she couldn't believe what he had just asked, " _Because_ this thing has been hiding away in a closet for 10,000 years, seemingly broken. I get it to work which was an impressive feat in and of itself and all of a sudden; something causes it to go off. It's clearly locked on to something. We need to go find whatever it is."

"I'm down to go searching for something." Lance said, latching onto the plan, "Let's go get everyone. The Galra have been quiet this past couple of weeks. Everything's getting so boring here." He turned to go back the way that they had come from. "I'd say an adventure is due."

They all ran through the hallways; the object -which was dubbed The Egg ("With a capital 'E.' That makes it special, Pidge")- exchanged hands several times, each person trying to stump the little red dot on where was trying to go. The three of them literally ran into Shiro, quickly explained The Egg and the dot. (No, we're not calling it 'The Dot' with a capital 'D,' Lance)

Oddly enough, Shiro smiled and actually seemed intrigued by the idea of an excursion. It must have been _really_ long since something actually happened on the castle ship. He followed them, albeit slower and shook his head at their noise and shenanigans.

They got to the bridge and found Allura and Coran watching the mice intently. "Princess!" Someone yelled, "We propose an excursion." That was Pidge. She continued, "So, I found this… thing…"

"The Egg!" Lance provided.

"Yeah, this egg… thing… machine… Look, I found this thing." She said giving up and holding The Egg up for the Alteans to see, "And when I first got it to work, there was only this green light on the bottom, right here. But, I left it for an hour or so, and I came back. There's this weird red light that looks like its trying to get somewhere. We want to follow it."

Five sets of eyes landed on Allura, waiting for her judgment, "Well…" For several long seconds, no one moved or said anything, "I don't see the harm in seeing what this energy anomaly is."

A chorus of cheers went up around the room, "Wait. What do you mean by 'energy anomaly'?" Pidge asked as she brushed a lock of her short hair behind her ear.

"That's what that does." Allura answered, "It monitors the energy of the universe, and whenever there are sudden differences, it lights up. Different types of energy lit up in different colors." She frowned, "Although, I don't think I've ever seen it light up red. All the more reason to investigate it, I'd say."

"What are we doing?" Keith asked peeking his head onto the Bridge.

"Guys we totally forgot Keith." Hunk said, hiding his face in his hands.

"We didn't forget him. He just wasn't wandering the halls. That sounds like his fault." Lance chimed in.

"Why did neither of you answer my goddamn question?" Keith asked as he walked up to Lance and hit him upside the head.

"Keith, language." Shiro glared at him, "But long story short, we're following some type of beacon or homing signal to some energy flare. Is that right?"

Allura nodded, "Not necessarily a flare, but an energy anomaly. It could be a surge, emergence of a different type of energy, even the lack of energy in any place. But it only reacts if there's a lot of difference in a short period of time."

Keith frowned and crossed his arms, "Is there any way that we could be heading straight into a trap of some type?"

"Highly unlikely." Coran said, "There is a possibility, but no one has had one of these operational for a while. That's not to say that it's not going to be risk-free either. It could be any number of things: a black hole, a new star, the Galra draining a star, a supernova -now that would be something to see."

"Great." Keith monotoned, "We're going out in Voltron then."

"You took to this idea a lot quicker than we thought you would," Lance said, cocking his head.

"Well, it's not like I can stop your impulsive ass." Keith shot back and moving to his seat. "Besides, I think we need a bit of adventure."

Allura smiled, "That's enough for me. Let's go and see what all this is about."

-

They stopped the castleship a ways away from the anomaly so that Coran could come and get them if things went awry and launched each of the lions into the vacuum of space.

 _Beep_

Silence.

"What was that?" Keith asked.

Lance shrugged, "I don't know. It sounded a little like a microwave when your food's done."

"It totally did. I miss microwaves." Hunk reminisced, "I mean, I love cooking and all, but being able just to put food in a box and come back to it two minutes later is a pretty cool concept."

Allura looked at the others on the Blue Lion's screen, "I'm not sure I'm familiar with a microwave. What type of technology is it?"

Everyone heard a deep breath as Pidge began to explain microwaves in depth, "It's this rather new technology on Earth that was introduced in the 1950s or something like that. It uses actual microwaves hence the name-"

 _Beep_

"There it is again!" Lance yelled, interrupting Pidge. "I don't want to be the one to say this, but doesn't it also sound a little like those bombs you see on TV?"

Keith rolled his eyes, "Great going, Lance. Way to stay optimistic."

"Hey, I'm just saying what I think it sounds like!"

"And _I'm_ saying that it could be any number of things, but _you_ were the one who voiced the worst-"

 _Beep_

"It sounds like it's coming over the coms." Hunk said helpfully. "Maybe it's like a low-battery warning? Do the helmets need to charge?"

Allura shook her head, "The helmets pull off of the quintessence around us. The more around us, the longer the range."

 _Beep_

"Is it just me," Lance started, "Or is it speeding up?"

 _Beep_

"Yep, it's definitely speeding up." He continued worriedly, "Keith, can we-" _Beep_ "revisit the whole possible bomb thing?"

 _Beep_

"Guys," Pidge said, her voice high with excitement or worry; it was hard to tell, "It's coming from The Egg!"

 _Beep_

"Why is it beeping?" Hunk asked.

"How am I supposed-" _Beep_ "to know? This thing is ancient." Pidge shot back.

 _Beep_

"You're the computer genius."

 _Beep_

"I know I'm the computer genius, but that doesn't mean-"

"Guys." Keith interrupted.

 _Beep_

"What?"

"Look."

There, in the middle of space were five battered Lions. One green that looked as though she had been through a meat grinder. Her front window had been shattered, and the green paint was chipping off revealing shiny, scratched metal beneath. The lights had gone out.

The Yellow Lion looked like she had been crushed by something. The breastplate was caved in, and one of her ears had been stricken by something that it was dangling from the top, literally held on by a wire." The lights had gone out.

The Red Lion was spread eagle. Her back sported a large, crater-like black burn. The metal around it had bubbled up, melted, and cooled, creating a look of black boils on the otherwise red surface. The lights had gone out.

The Blue Lion was curled up, as she was protecting something precious. She had a massive dent in the side of her head that might have been there from an encounter with a meteor or small planet. The lights had gone out.

The Black Lion might have been the worst of all. Some of her circuitry could be seen even from here, wires were exposed and spilling from her underside like black spaghetti. It looked like she had been completely eviscerated. The lights had gone out.

Voltron.

 **A/N: Please tell me if you're intrigued so far, and check it out on AO3 as well!**

 **Hey, so... When I uploaded this earlier, it went all wonky. I really hope this fixed it because I didn't know until the next day that no one could actually read this because it was a jumble of nothingness.**


	2. Waking Up

**A/N: Hey! I'm back. I'm so sorry for the wait, but the reviews were positive from the last chapter so I decided to continue this work. Feel free to tell me what you think!**

They got the Lions back to the castle with no problems. The functional Lions shared hangars to make room for the others that looked quite worse for wear. Once they got closer, the paladins realized that it was nowhere near as bad as they had previously thought. The only one that was bad was the Black Lion. She looked as if someone had torn through the metal trying to claw out her mechanical heart.

"Are you thinking they came in from another reality?" Pidge asked on her way to the Green Lion. "Because I'm thinking they came in from another reality."

Keith nodded, "How else would there be two Voltrons? Unless King Alfor kept a really big secret from the original paladins."

"My father wouldn't have kept a secret this big from his friends." Allura shook her head, "He wouldn't have kept a secret this big from me."

They all stood at the base of the Black Lion, staring up at it. No one spoke for what seemed like an eternity. There was an odd tension in the air as everyone thought the same thing, but no one wanted to voice it.

 _Is anyone even alive in there?_

 _What if this Voltron isn't even us?_

"Well, we might as well see if anyone in there needs help," Lance said, trying to lighten the mood. He sauntered over to the Lion and paused only a moment to swallow the knot that was forming in his throat before he wiggled into her slightly agape mouth.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for something, anything from Lance. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. They heard a _clunk_ from inside and everyone flinched and waited, waited, waited.

"He's alive!" Lance shouted, "It's Keith! But…" He trailed off. Whatever he had been about to say was quickly discarded as everyone rushed to get into the Lion to see this other-reality Keith.

"He's hurt. I didn't know that there was this much blood in one person." Lance finished as Keith (his Keith) appeared inside. His hands had already turned red where he pressed into Keith's (not his Keith) side. Lance had taken off the black paladin armor that unconscious-Keith was wearing, for a better look. "We need to get you out of here before you die," Lance said and looked up at Keith.

Keith sighed, "Great. This is exactly what I wanted from this trip."

Together, they were able to get Other-Keith out of the Black Lion and into a healing pod without too many problems.

"Lance is in Blue!" Allura shouted, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice; where was she?

"I'm in Green!" Pidge answered as she carefully pulled her own small form from the maw of the Green Lion, "Am I really this light?"

"I'm here too!" Hunk called from the Yellow Lion.

 _Bang!_

"Who dropped themselves?" Lance called back, "Pidge, was that you?"

"Nope. Believe it or not, I'm stronger than you lot think I am. And I apparently weigh half as much as I thought I did."

"I didn't drop me either," Hunk called, "I'm just dragging me out." He sighed, "This is going to get really confusing really fast."

 _Bang_

A groan echoed through the hangar.

"That sounds like it's coming from Red." Shiro called.

Just as soon as he said it, Red's mouth opened and a woman in red armor stepped out shakily. She was taller than Lance and quite thin, but she still looked healthy. She was leaning heavily on the side of the Red Lion. She looked up slightly and through her visor, the team could see vibrant green eyes. Looking around and catching sight of Pidge pulling herself out of Green and Hunk with Hunk, she looked directly at Lance and said, "Oh, fuck me." Before promptly passing out.

The team was able to get everyone into the healing pods with no more difficulties. Aside from Keith, everyone seemed like they had gotten out with little to no injuries. They all had minor concussions which was why they were all unconscious when they got here.

"I'm definitely thinking other reality." Lance spoke, staring at himself disdainfully, "I mean unless all of us have long lost identical twin siblings that we never knew about that managed to find each other and create an entirely new Voltron by themselves."

"As cool as that would be," Pidge started, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, "It's statistically impossible, even if we all had long lost siblings, where would they even find the resources to make Voltron without any prior knowledge or materials. Definitely other reality."

"What if they're our alter-egos? That would be so cool. Wait, maybe they're from the future. How likely is time-travel? Maybe they're our evil doppelgangers, that have come to take our place on Voltron and take it over for evil and we have to have a fight to the death and kill ourselves to protect the universe!"

Everyone stared at him. "Let's just hope that they're good." Keith said, "Because it would really suck going through all this trouble to heal them if they're just going to try and kill us later."

"No one is going to kill themselves!" Allura said, aghast, "I'm sure that they're going to be just as confused as we are when they wake up. And we have more questions than just where they came from. For instance: Where are Shiro and I and who is the woman that was in the Red Lion?"

"That is a good question…" Keith agreed, "Coran, can you run additional scans on her? See if you can find out who she is or where she came from?"

Coran handed him a holographic device, "Already done while you were bickering about whether or not they were your evil twins. Her genetic makeup is quite surprising though." He tapped a place on the screen.

"She's half-Galra?" Keith breathed, looking up at the woman again.

" _And_ half-human."

Keith turned off the device, "When are they waking up?"

Coran turned to another monitor, "If everything continues as it should, Keith should be the first to wake up, followed by mystery-woman, then Pidge, Hunk, and Lance. Most likely in that order. Keith should wake up in about two of your Earth-days, which is surprising from the amount of damage that he took. And there is also an oddity with Lance."

"What's wrong with me? Well, not _me_ me, but _that_ me? I bet that-me even cooler than me-me. Wait. That-me can't be cooler than me-me. Me-me needs to be the best me out of all of the mes-"

"I swear on that you that if you say 'me' one more time, I will personally throw you into the vacuum of space." Keith threatened, "Anyways, what type of an oddity?"

"He has a metal leg starting from just above the knee." Coran answered, then continued waveringly, "Scans match the technology of Shiro's arm."

Everyone was silent as the news sunk in. If Lance had Galra tech that matched Shiro's, that meant that at some point, he had been in the Druid's care.

"That's not all." Coran continued, "The mystery girl also has traces of Galra tech, but her's are embedded in her brain."

More silence until Shiro finally spoke, "Coran, do you think you could speed up the healing process ever so slightly? I think we all want some answers."

Just under two days later, Shiro was there waiting to catch other-Keith. Only he never fell, he simply braced himself on the edge of the pod and groaned. He breathed in deeply through his nose and opened his eyes, coming face to face with Shiro.

For a moment, he scrunched his eyes up in confusion. He raised his hand to his head and groaned. "Am I dead or not?"

Lance popped his head up behind Shiro, "Well, we were still trying to figure out whether you're our evil doppelgangers or not. Sorry, but if it turns out that you are, we, unfortunately, have to kill you."

Keith shook his head and suppressed another groan from the sharp pain that shot through the back of his head right behind his eyes, "I… don't think I'm an evil doppelganger… Wait… Hold on. What?"

"Seeing as there's a phrase 'one of a kind' and you look a lot like me, that's a pretty good indicator that something's a little wrong here," Keith said as he rounded a corner to look himself in the eyes.

This time, Other-Keith couldn't hide his groan, "Well, fuck." He sighed, "If I'm not dead, then where the hell am I?"

"We're 97% sure that you're from another reality," Pidge answered matter-of-factly. "Although, you did try really hard to die if that's what you were wondering. We're all confused as to how you were the first one completely recovered when you had a literal hole through your abdomen, but right now, we're not questioning it."

"I'm the first one out?" He asked, then glanced around at the healing pods around him, taking note of his friends, "Who's next?"

"If the computer is right, she" Coran pointed to the mystery woman, "should be the next out in about one half of one Earth-hour. After that, it should be Pidge, Hunk, then Lance last."

"Yeah, also, the only thing she did was look me straight in the eyes, say, 'Oh, fuck me.' and passed out. I don't think it was the good 'Fuck me' either. I could have dealt with the good 'Fuck me'." Lance asked, "I need answers here."

Other-Keith grimaced, "Oh, Nine might not have seen that you were a different Lance. She's got this weird vendetta-friendship thing with him." He gestured to the Lance in the healing pod.

"Nine…?" Shiro prompted.

"Yeah, that's her name." he said then cocked his head, "You don't know her?"

"We've never met before. At least, not in this reality." Shiro answered, looking up at the woman.

Coran pressed a few buttons from the leisurely blinking monitor, "Huh, it looks like the computer was a little off; you're about to meet her in…" He squinted at the screen again, "120 ticks or so. Would anyone like to start a countdown?" Everyone was quiet for a few moments as seven pairs of eyes rested their gaze, "Well, I just wanted to know if any of you wanted to count down, not if any of you wanted to give me your firstborn child."

"It's not that…" Hunk said, "It's just… why did you think we would want to start a countdown?"

Lance held up his hand, "I would have started one if she hadn't looked at me as if I was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. It's called being _suave_ , look it up."

Pidge muffled her laughter behind her hand, "Since when do you know the word _suave_ let alone use it in a sentence?"

Lance scoffed, "Obviously, since I heard it on a TV show and looked it up in a dictionary. Duh"

"Would you be so kind as to enlighten us as to the meaning of 'suave'?"

"Of course." He said dripping, with confidence, "'Typically when speaking about a man, Charming, Confident, and Elegant.'" He listed them on his fingers.

Both Keith's snorted at the same time, "Elegant?" This-Keith asked while Other-Keith shook his head, "I had hoped that you would be a little more mature in this reality."

"Okay, first of all." Lance started, pointing his finger at the first Keith, "I am one hundred percent elegant, and don't you go reminding me that I literally tripped over my own foot on the second day of training. I was tired. And two." He moved his accusing finger to the second Keith, "I'm not immature. I'm _suave_."

Shiro held up a hand to quiet Lance and looked to Other-Keith, "Wait. You mean that when that one wakes up, we're going to have another kid to watch?"

He shrugged, "Unfortunately. There are some rare occasions that he's serious, but for the most part, he's like that." Other-Keith gestured at Lance vaguely

"I bet you that I could be mature. I mean, how hard could it actually be? I just need to act like Shiro." Lance said.

This-Keith laughed, "I'll take you up on that bet, just like the last one. How are you coming with those six robots anyway?"

Lance paled and leaned over to Hunk, whispering-not-so-quietly, "I _told_ you that he would remember… Do you think it's too late for me to back out now?"

 _Hsssssssssss_

Everyone stopped as they looked at the healing pod which was depressurizing rapidly. Other-Keith stood up and made to move to help Nine, but Shiro held up a hand to stop him and shook his head warningly, "You just got out of a healing pod yourself." He said.

Other-Keith rolled his eyes but sat back down without complaining, which was honestly more cooperative than Shiro thought he could be. He was either really tired from his time in the pod, or the other reality was much better behaved. A cooperative Keith? Who would have thought it was possible?

The door swung back soundlessly and Nine stepped out easily. She opened her green eyes and looked around the room at the two Keiths and the rest of the paladins, both in and out of the healing pods, "Damn, it wasn't a dream." She looked at Lance again, "I have to deal with _two_ of you, now?"

Lance looked at her and around the room at the others, "Do you see this? I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now."

"But did you come out to have a good time?" Hunk asked smiling slyly and looking at Lance.

Nine put her head in her hands and mumbled, "Oh god, it's worse." She peeked through her fingers to Keith, "How long have you been awake and dealing with this?"

He looked to the others around him and shrugged, "A few minutes? You were right behind me."

"Really? I must have had one hell of a concussion if the guy with a _freaking hole shot through him_ got out before me." Nine said then gripped her head, "I feel another headache coming on."

"You don't get to make the 'It's just Lance joke.'" He said, "He's already up in arms about how you looked at him and said, 'oh, fuck me'."

Nine glared at Lance.

Lance threw his hands into the air, "Look. Listen. What did I _do_? Generally, I'm okay with being treated like a jerk, but I've usually actually _acted_ like a jerk before being treated like a jerk. I don't remember acting like a jerk to you. Is it something my other-self did? Because I don't know everything that he did, but at least cut me some slack."

Nine looked at him for a while, "Wait… You mean I actually have to mind my manners when I'm around you?" She asked disbelievingly, "Have we not met…? Am I dead…? Wait… Where are we anyway?"

Other-Keith interrupted, "Alternate reality. And no, no one has met you, so hopefully don't exist."

"And, why do you torment me so much?" Lance asked.

"Ooh!" Pidge exclaimed, "Two big words in less than a day!"

Nine raised her hand, "I just want to say that I'm nowhere _near_ as condescending as her."

"Let's just stop this before it gets too out of hand." Shiro interrupted, holding up both of his hands to quell everyone in the room. "Pidge, respect Lance's vocabulary. Lance, I know that for the first time, you weren't the one to start something, but please don't let it get to you. And, Nine. I don't know you, but please don't antagonize our Lance. You can probably do it later once he gets used to it, and I won't stop you then. But I think we all need a few answers."

Nine walked over and sat next to Other-Keith, "If you want to know how we got here, we don't know. The last thing I remember is being shot by some kind of beam. We had gotten intel from the Blades that said the Galra had developed some new kind of weapon."

"Antimatter," Other-Keith said softly.

Coran let out a low whistle that dropped in pitch, "Well, I never thought that they would be able to get the tech for that. It's been in development in this reality for a little over 10,000 years. It was something King Alfor thought of in theory and shared with the original paladins. They managed to create a minuscule amount of the stuff and it nearly killed them all. After that, they decided that some things were better off a mystery. If Zarkon managed to recreate any amount of antimatter, entire Solar Systems could be at risk."

"Yep, that's the stuff." Nine said, "I thought that the beam was going to kill us for sure, but all of a sudden, all of our Lions urged us to do the thing with our bayards at the exact same time. When we did it, everything went white and all of a sudden we were in this reality. Does that about sum it up?"

"Yeah, that about sums it up." Keith answered, "I thought that we had been hit right before we went through, so maybe there was some extra energy from the blast that allowed whatever happened to happen." He shrugged, "I have no clue how to get back."

Coran walked over to the group, "Well, that does sound like quite the pickle as your Earth-Sayings go. We have extra rooms for you to sleep in until we find a way to send you back, but there's only four."

"I'm sure that two of us can double up; it shouldn't be a problem." Other-Keith said easily, "Besides, I'm not moving until everyone wakes up."

"You just spent two days in stasis healing from a life-threatening wound-" Shiro started.

"So, I should be well rested." He cut Shiro off, "I'm not leaving." Maybe he wasn't as cooperative as Shiro had thought.

"He's already done this once before." Nine said, "When one of the search and rescue missions went wrong, he slept in here for a week until Lance woke up. The one time we got him into his room, he came back here in less than a varga with a pillow and a blanket. He's not moving anytime soon."

Shiro looked like he wanted to protest further but he caught sight of something in Keith's eyes and stopped himself. He sighed, "Fine. I take it you're staying with him?"

Nine smiled, "Absolutely. I need to be the first to yell at Lance."

" _Why_ is it necessary to yell at me?" He bemoaned from behind Hunk, "I haven't done anything to you."

"Yet." She smiled. "It's also really fun."

"But why did you start messing with me in the first place?"

"Payback."

Other-Keith scoffed, "I'd hardly call that prank a payback worthy slight."

Lance looked at them then back up at his counterpart in stasis, "What the hell did you do to her?"

"He gave her a couple books." Other-Keith smiled, " _Divergent, Game of Thrones, 1984_ stuff like that and told her it was Earth history. I think there was even a copy of _Fifty Shades of Grey_ in the mix. Which sounds like a great joke right now, but she took him seriously which was her first mistake. Nine spent an entire week wondering why we all thought that Earth was amazing. She also thought that our, 'Mating Rituals' were 'completely fucked.'"

Lance looked at her confusedly, "Wait… they all take place in different places. _Game of Thrones_ isn't even on Earth. And _1984_ takes place in… 1984…"

"Well, if I told you that the mating rituals of several different species including that of the Galra were quite extensive and involved a dance and song, then you might just believe me." Nine said defensively, "You have no knowledge of anything different, and if I gave you a Galra fantasy romance novel, you have no knowledge as to if it's real or not."

"He also gave her a few legitimate Earth Histories along the time of WWII. There was also an account of the Salem Witch Trials." Other-Keith half-laughed, "It was honestly the most thought-out prank I've ever seen him pull."

Nine shook her head, "That's not all. He told me that the dragons in _Game of Thrones_ were hunted and killed by the Nazis who were overthrown by Big Brother _because_ Big Brother was some kind of protector of the peace. The murder of the dragons threw them into a frenzy and once they were in power, they just rolled with it."

"If only Lance could put that much thought into his training." Pidge mused, "He might just be able to hold his own in battle."

"Hey!" Lance interjected, "I am, like, the best one here."

Hunk looked at him blankly then smiled shyly and said, "Tell that to those three gladiators."

Lance's face fell as he looked at his friend and held his hand to his heart in faux-pain, "Hunk, my man. How could you betray me like that? How could you just stab me in the back? I thought we were friends, buddies, amigos. What happened to all of our time in the Garrison?"

"Sorry, Nine is right; it is kinda funny to mock you." Hunk responded jokingly. "I'll make it up to you with food anyways. We were just headed to lunch when Keith decided to wake up."

Lance smiled and threw himself up to hug his friend, "Food sounds awesome. We can bring it back and watch ourselves sleep because this is the only time that we can say that and get away with it not being weird."

"Don't worry, it's still weird," Keith reassured him.

"I don't think it's nearly as weird as talking to yourself." Other-Keith shot back.

"Touche, Keith. Wait. Other-Keith, not you-Kieth. This-Keith? This is going to get really confusing really fast. We need to come up with ways to tell the difference between everyone." Lance's eyes widened, "I want to be known as 'Badass Lance' he can be the Other-Lance or whatever, but I want the title of 'Badass-Lance'!"

Other-Keith rolled his eyes, "First of all, there's _no way_ that my Lance would stand for that. Second of all, if either one of you was going to be known as 'Badass-Lance' it would be him." He jabbed his thumb to the healing pods.

"How could you say that?" Lance asked, "Keith, This-Keith, you'd back me up, wouldn't you? I could be 'Badass-Lance', right?"

Keith shook his head, "Sorry. If my other self takes a side, I'm most likely going to side with him."

Lance deflated, "Fine then. I guess I just have to prove to you that I can _earn_ the title of 'Badass-Lance'. We could have one-on-one combat to decide who would get the title. There can be only one!"

"Don't make ultimatums you can't keep, Lance." Hunk said, "You already have one impossible task that you agreed to."

"Excuse you, I will _demolish_ those damn bots if it's the last thing I do." Lance assured his friend, "In fact, I'm going to go right now. I'm going to defend my title as the Sharpshooter of the team and earn the title of Badass-Lance."

"Lance, that sounds like a terrible idea." Hunk said, "Haven't you already gotten your ass handed to you once today?"

He scoffed as he marched out the door, "I'm sure there's a proverb or something out there about never giving up."

Hunk chased after him, "Yes, there are several, but there are also things like _common sense_ that say that broken bones are no fun!" He sighed and hung his head in defeat, "I'm gonna bring you some food later," he turned back around, "Should I bring anything back for any of you in here?"

"I'm good." Nine brushed him off smoothly, "I ate just before this whole debacle, and being in temporary stasis doesn't make you all that hungry."

Other-Keith scoffed, "Yeah right. Bring something back for both of us if you want." Then he addressed Nine, "You don't get to turn your hunger off again. You ate a day before everything went down and you've been in stasis for…?"

"Two Quintets." Coran supplied helpfully as he pressed a few buttons on a monitor, "The next one out should be Pidge in about three vargas, then Hunk a varga after that. Lance will be out three vargas or so after Hunk. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and grab something to eat; I am starved. Would you care to join me, Princess?"

"I am hungry as well. I trust that we can find you here." Allura said.

Other-Keith and Nine nodded quickly; the Alteans turned to leave with that affirmative.

"So…" Pidge trailed off as Coran left with Allura. She kept her hands behind her back and hung her head in something that resembled embarrassment, "I know that it might be a major breach of privacy," She started looking at Nine, "but I was wondering about the tech that you have."

Nine smiled and reached for her pockets. She frowned slightly before she remembered that she was in a different uniform, "In the right front pocket of my paladin armor, there should be a flash drive of everything Katie managed to figure out. I usually let her poke around my head once an Earth-week. I can do the same for you if you'd like."

Pidge's eyes lit up, "Hell yes. Did you have a day set up that you would do it? What is it at its core? How long have you had the tech?"

Nine laughed and tucked her short hair behind her ear, "I've had the implant as long as I can remember. I think the Galra put it in there shortly after I was born. As to what it does, I don't know exactly. It gave me near complete control of my brain, but there's nothing else about it that we could tell. It's not a tracking implant or a way to control me." She shrugged, "I have a hard time believing that the scientists that did it would do something purely beneficial."

"How long were you with them?" Shiro asked and clarified, "The Galra."

"Eighteen Earth-years or so. I don't actually know how old I am, but I was born and raised in the labs and then they," She gestured to the rest of her team, "found me a few Earth-months ago. They think I'm eighteen or nineteen, but no one really knows. My dad was Galra and my mom was Human, but I've never met either of them. They're probably both dead by now."

Nine shrugged and leaned back onto the table, "It's honestly not that big of a deal. I might have a family out there, I might not. It's something I accepted a while ago because there's no way to change it. Also, please don't tell your Lance that I'm okay with not knowing my biological parents because our Lance absolutely flipped his shit when he found out I didn't care." She turned to address Pidge, "Do you wanna go get the flash drive and look the info over, or take your first peek?"

Pidge smiled, "As much as I _should_ trust myself, I'd rather find out information on my own."

"I figured as much," Nine said, "Go get whatever equipment you want, but be careful with electricity based stuff. I don't want to go into another coma."

Pidge's excitement was hardly contained as she nearly sprinted out of the room to get whatever she was going to get. She used the doorway to sling-shot herself down the hallway to her room.

"Do you really think it's the best idea to let Pidge poke around your brain?" Keith asked, "I mean, I'm not sure how much you trust her in your dimension, but I personally wouldn't let her within three feet of my brain."

"I'm the same way." Other-Keith answered, "I don't understand how she can stay so still while Katie roots around, but she does, and Katie loves her for it. Now, when she asked Lance if she could look into his leg, he was smart and ran for the hills."

"He didn't make it very far." Nine scoffed, "He was still getting used to it and he fell. It was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen him do. And I've seen him do some pretty embarrassing things."

"Speaking of his leg," Shiro started. His voice took on a serious tone, "How did he manage to end up with the Druids?"

Other-Keith frowned, "There was a fight and we were thrown into this wormhole that separated us. I landed with Shiro, but we were a couple miles apart. Katie landed alone, but in some sort of hub area where she could reach out to all of us. Hunk landed on a completely water-borne planet with these merpeople. But, Lance, was thrown onto a Galra occupied planet.

"We looked for him and Blue for a month before we finally got a signal on one of the ships. We ran a search and rescue mission to get him and Blue back, then we picked up a straggler." He gestured to Nine, who raised her hand and smiled cheekily, "She helped get him out and apparently they had become somewhat friends in the one month that he was gone, so she stayed. That's why we're stuck with her today."

"Yeah, but you still love me." Nine said flippantly and smiled. "Besides, I'm like, the best hand-to-hand fighter, Shiro excluded of course. You would have died twice in hypothetical fights by now if it weren't for me."

Other-Keith scoffed, "Yeah. And those hypothetical fights also included you leaving one or all of us at some point before _valiantly_ coming back to _save_ us" He emphasized his words with air quotes.

She shrugged, "We won, didn't we? My fighting methods might be unorthodox, but they work. You shouldn't argue with results."

Shiro chuckled and crossed his arms, "You know," he started, "for how much you pick on Lance, you really sound like him."

Nine groaned as comically as she could manage. She threw herself to the side and almost fell off the side of the table; she had to grab at the edge to keep herself from hitting the floor, "Everyone says that, but I can say with one-hundred percent clarity that I am _at least_ twice as funny as him."

Other-Keith rolled his eyes, "No, yours are just better timed. He tells twice as many, but yours are twice as successful. It evens out. At best, you're equal with him."

"Wow. Thanks. Equivalent. I feel sooooooo complimented." She said sarcastically.

"I don't know." Keith said, "Lance has some _incredibly_ bad jokes. I think that they might be negative points to him."

She laughed, "Why is your other self more supporting of my jokes than you are?"

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not supporting your jokes. I'm just insulting Lance's."

"I'll take what I can get." Nine shrugged happily.

"Speaking of the insufferable comedian," Keith said, "I'm going to see if I can catch him failing to fight a few gladiators because of a bet." He got up and spoke to Nine, "But good luck with Pidge and her inquiries. If I don't see you at dinner, I'll know who to blame."

Right as Keith was walking out, Pidge came running from around the corner with her bag of tools in her arms. Her hair was slightly disheveled, but her cheeks were flushed with excitement and whatever run she had just made, "I want to thank you right now for letting me pick around your brain."

"No problem." Nine said. She moved so she was lying facedown on the table with her forehead resting on her arms. She parted her hair away from the tech at the base of her neck so that Pidge could reach it easily. "My only requirement is that you _don't_ put me to sleep for a week this time."

Pidge froze where she stood, "What are the chances that I would do that?" She cautiously pulled a few delicate looking tools from her bag, "Do I need to worry about making the thing short-circuit?"

"Don't worry about it. God knows that we could do with the quiet." Other-Keith said, "And you only sent a small electrical wave through her brain one time before. It only put her out for an hour. The worst you could do is cause permanent brain damage."

Pidge squaked, "That sounds like a pretty serious consequence. Are you sure I should be allowed to root around?"

Nine chuckled, "Yeah, it's fine. Katie's been doing this for a while now, and she's only _actually_ caused some sort of 'damage' once. She did make my right eye twitch for two quintets, and there was one time that I couldn't open my fist for a varga. I have complete faith in Katie, so I have moderate faith in you."

Pidge laughed, "I guess I'll take moderate faith then."

"Well, I can't just go around fully trusting people left and right. That would reflect poorly on me." Nine said, "Now go ahead. I can't feel when you dig around in there. Let's see if you can find something that Katie couldn't. That would really piss her off."

Pidge smiled devilishly, "Well, let's see what I can find."

 **So, how do you guys like Nine so far? I apologize again for the weird thing that it did with the formatting. I hope this comes out better because I don't want to redo this _again_. Anyways, how do you like Nine so far? I'm also debating on changing Pidge's pronouns to they/them to help you differentiate between Pidge and Katie. Is there anything you want to see in future chapters? Feel free to tell me what you think.**


	3. Team-Team Bonding

**A/N: Hey! I'm back! This chapter was originally supposed to be waaaaaaaaaay longer than it is now and I decided to cut it down to a little under 4k words because otherwise, it was going to be something insane. Of course, this means that the next chapter after this will, of course, be really long. I think I've talked enough and most of y'all just skip Author's Notes, so I'll just let you read.**

"I'm never going to be able to beat these _fucking_ machines!" Lance trembled with rage.

Keith chuckled internally and smirked before he turned into the room to watch Lance throw a fit. He heard a dull thunk that was most likely Lance throwing something large and heavy on the metal ground or punching the nearest wall in a fit of rage.

"It doesn't even make _any_ sense why that idiotic mullet would have the fucking difficulty so fucking high." Lance screamed in frustration, "They're just robots, it's not like he's practicing on actual people. It shouldn't be this difficult just to kill two of these damn pieces of scrap metal! _Two_! Not six, not four. _Two_!"

He emphasized each number by kicking the closest possible rustbucket as hard as he possibly could, trying to send it across the room. When Keith rounded the corner to see what was happening, he saw that Lance's efforts were, not surprisingly, ineffectual.

Lance stood facing away from him. The gladiator was on the ground, accepting the beating that Lance was dishing out with no complaint. The paladin himself was standing with his bayard in his hand and off to the side. He was panting heavily and his hair was sticking up at odd angles that made it look like he had horns sprouting from his head.

Keith couldn't contain his amusement anymore and he finally let himself scoff. Lance whipped around to look at him; his face was flushed from whatever fight he had done prior to Keith spotting him. "So does this mean you aren't going to beat those six bots?" he asked teasingly.

Lance groaned, "Ughhhhh. Don't even talk to me about it. It's bad enough that these bastards," he kicked the fallen machine again, "kick my ass when you _aren't_ here. I don't need you telling me how much better swords are than guns at fighting."

"Well, other than the fact that they are," Keith started, "did you go straight into trying to take down six?"

He scoffed, "No. I just started your last session, so the three bastards were the same bastards you fought."

"You mean the same bastards that kicked your ass are the same bastards who's ass I kicked?" Keith asked, trying to keep his smile from showing, "Keep trying. I'm sure that you'll get it eventually."

"You have such motivational words." Lance said, sarcasm dripping from his voice, "My inability to fight is instantly cured. Why didn't you do this in the first place?"

Keith rolled his eyes, "Don't be a dick. Try it one more time, and one more time after that, and one more time after that. Each time you try, you'll get a little better and learn more about the robot's techniques. You'll use those in the next fight and you'll get a little better. That's all training is: learning, acting, and getting better."

He cocked his head curiously, "Did you _actually_ give me good advice? Like, that's a thing you're actually capable of doing?"

Keith shrugged, "Don't sound so surprised. I couldn't take down two on the basic setting when I first started. I can now take down three on level five easily. Patience yields focus."

"Don't use Shiro's sayings on me. He uses them often enough; I don't need someone else telling me the same things."

"Why shouldn't I tell you something that actually works? You can't be the weak link forever."

Lance's eyes lit up with a familiar spark, "Is that a challenge, Mullet?"

Keith smiled. He stalked over to the corner and discarded his jacket on top of Lance's, "Only if you're accepting it." He dropped into a defensive stance with his arms out in front of him, balled into loose fists. "No bayards, the winner is the last one standing."

"Computer, clear the floor." WIthout any hesitation, the remaining scraps of the gladiators fell through the ground. Lance dropped his weapon and followed Keith's example. His feet were spread wide, and his shoulders were pressed back.

The two paladins circled each other cautiously; they both evaluated the other, looking for any type of weakness or inconsistency in their stance.

Without any warning, Lance ran forward and swung his right fist. Keith's instincts were fast, and he easily blocked the attack. He frowned and swung his left fist which met only air.

"Your fighting style isn't varied at all." Keith said as one of Lance's attacks brushed past his cheek and blew some of his hair slightly.

Lance scoffed, but he was already breathing heavily so it came out more like a gasp, "You're calling _my_ fighting boring? What about the person who hasn't even thrown a- Whoa!"

All of a sudden, he was looking up at the white ceiling and he was on the floor. Keith's face appeared right in front of a light, which caused his silhouette to look almost angelic. It only irked Lance more; how could he look so pleased with himself?

"You focused too much on my upper body, looking for an attack from my hands." Keith held his gloved hand out for the other to help himself up.

Lance took it, but not without scowling at it for a few seconds, "That's typically how people fight, Samurai."

"That's not how you win." He lowered himself into a defensive stance, "1-0, my favor. Learn."

Lance sighed but got into his stance, "Fine." Keith's foot shot out as soon as the word was out of his mouth. He tried to hook it around Lance's front foot and pull it out from under him, but Lance was able to sidestep the attack. As soon as he did, his face broke into a wide grin, "Look at who's _learning_."

Keith's arm shot out like a snake, throwing Lance off balance and allowing him to swipe the legs out from under him. "2-0, my favor. We can stop when you knock me down." He held out his hand again, and Lance took it again. His blue eyes sparked with mischief.

"Challenge accepted, Mullet."

 _Hsssssssssss_

Hunk fell gracefully into Keith and Nine's waiting arms. He scrunched his face in discomfort, "Ughhhhh."

"That was dignified." Nine said, slowly lowering him onto the table that she had rested on earlier while Pidge explored her implant. "How are you doing?"

He groaned again, only this time it was slightly more sarcastic as he opened his eyes, "Just great. How long was I out for?"

Keith shrugged, "A little longer than two quintets. Katie was out a varga before you and Lance should be out in three more."

He looked behind them to see Katie hovering over her laptop typing away. There was a crazed look in her eyes as if she had just made a major breakthrough, only… Katie didn't wear glasses. Slowly, he raised his pointed finger and whispered, "Since when has Katie needed glasses."

Keith sucked in a breath behind him, "Oh yeah… we forgot to mention that one detail."

Nine picked up where he had left off, "We're kinda in another reality. At least, that's what we think. That's not Katie, that's Pidge." She pointed to the figure in the corner. Pidge raised her hand quickly in acknowledgment before resuming whatever she was doing.

"I can't believe that you mixed us up. What did all of our time at the Garrison mean to you?" Katie said from the other corner. "I mean, my hair is obviously longer." Hunk looked between the two. They were identical to each other. The only difference was that Pidge (really, Pidge? Didn't Katie hate that name that Matt had given her?) wore glasses. Neither of them had hair that looked longer. He looked quizzically at Keith and Nine.

"Don't worry about it, Hunk." Nine said, "Katie has hair one centimeter longer than Pidge, I was there when they measured."

Hunk raised an eyebrow at the two green paladins, "How is one centimeter 'obvious'?"

"It was obvious to Nine!" Katie said, indignantly, "We stood next to each other and she was all, 'I think your hair is longer.' So, we measured, and lo and behold, my hair _is_ longer."

Pidge stood up from her laptop, "In Hunk's defense, Nine has an unfair advantage. Your implant really is amazing. When you said that you had more control of your brain, I didn't realize that it was around 80%. That's freakish control."

Katie rolled her eyes comically, "C'mon, me. I figured that out _ages_ ago. Didn't you look at Nine's flash drive I have her carry everywhere?"

"I tried to give it to her." Nine raised her hands in Pidge's defense, "But if it were you in her shoes, would you accept someone else's research?"

Katie crossed her arms over her chest and scowled good-naturedly, "Well, I mean, no. I would want to do it myself." She tucked her hair behind her ear, "But, it was _my_ research, and she's me. That's the equivalent of her refusing to look at her own research."

"Think about it, Katie." Hunk said, "If you had the opportunity to forget everything about coding and relearn it, wouldn't you?"

"No, learning code was fucking hard." From across the room, Pidge nodded her agreement.

"Okay." He tried again, "What about forgetting all about your favorite book series to read it again."

Katie scowled at him, "I mean, that would be pretty cool." she acquiesced, "But how would you like to have the answers to any test you needed to take?"

Nine laughed and clutched her hands to her heart, feigning pain, "I am hurt. All I am to you is a test? Pidge treats me better, I'll let her snoop around my brain then."

"Wait- no!" Katie reached out to grab Nine's arm, but Nine slipped out of her grip easily and pulled them both off balance so that they both collapsed to the floor, the green paladin absurdly sprawled out on top of the half-blood. "Your brain is beautiful; it's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. I love your brain."

Nine laughed and rested her head tiredly on the floor, "Did you just relate my brain- which was implanted by the _Galra Empire_ -to Russia. A communist country on Earth?"

Katie sat up on Nine's lap. One of her knees was firmly planted in the other's gut, but she really didn't seem to mind. Katie bit her lip worriedly and glanced around the room searching for any form of escape, "...Yes?"

"Great, I love being better than other people."

Katie visibly relaxed before looking back down at her, "You _do_ know that the USSR fell, right?"

"Really?" Nine asked as she raised an eyebrow questioningly. Katie nodded slowly and she turned her gaze to the others around the room, all of whom nodded in agreement. "What if it's different in this reality?"

From the corner, Pidge piped up, "Sorry, the USSR fell right after the end of the Cold War. They're just Russia now and have been for like 20 or 25 years."

"Damn." Nine breathed, and turned her attention back to Katie, who was still kneeling in her stomach, "In that case, get off me, because it's apparently painful and _how dare you_ relate _me to a fallen country?_ "

Katie let out a rather undignified sound as she launched herself off of Nine who breathed out from the pressure. Katie was almost out of her reach when Nine's hand shot out like a viper and grabbed her ankle. Katie fell like a sack of potatoes- quickly and gracelessly.

"Okay, you all just got out of healing pods," Shiro said as he walked through the doorway. He had a few plates of food goo balanced on his prosthetic arm and a knowing smile plastered on his face, "You can at least have the good graces to thank us before going back in."

Hunk's face lit up almost comically, "I will never turn down food, even if it is the gross synthetic stuff."

"Nice to see you're awake, Hunk. If you're awake, then that means the only one we're waiting on is Lance." This-Keith said as he came in behind Shiro. His shirt was darkened with sweat and his face was flushed from exertion. "As usual."

There was a sudden high pitched noise from behind him as This-Lance came in from behind him, similarly disheveled, "Excuse you, I'll have you know that I was the first one down to breakfast this morning."

This-Keith rolled his eyes and bit back a smile, "I'm talking about important things, idiot. Like how our first drill as paladins, you almost didn't even show up. What were you doing again? Spark my memory?"

Lance's face turned a light shade of pink, "I was uhhhh… replenishing my energy?"

Other-Keith laughed, "You were sleeping?!"

This-Keith nodded, "Yeah, he was out cold and then when he finally shows up it's in this robe and these slippers."

"Okay, listen here." Lance started and he moved to the center of the room so that everyone could look at him, "I was _tired_ , and I need my beauty sleep."

"You could use a little more." This-Keith said under his breath, but still loud enough to be heard by Lance.

Predictably, he screamed at Keith, "Excuse you! You take that back! My skin routine is flawless. You take that back Mr. What-even-is-a-face-mask. I can practically _see_ your pores from here."

"Oh my god." Katie said from the side, "They _still_ bicker like an old married couple. I can't get away from them even if I tried."

"Pidge!"

"Katie." She corrected, "I'm Katie, she's Pidge." She pointed at herself and the other accordingly.

" _There's two of you_?" Lance squeaked.

Everyone stared at him blankly. Keith went to stand by himself and Pidge went to stand by Katie. Hunk even pointed to the healing pod that still held the other Lance in it.

"Oh, yeah." He calmed somewhat, "Alternate reality. Right. Well, I'm glad to see that you're awake, Pidge-"

"Katie." She corrected again. "I hated that nickname when I was growing up, and I don't know why _you_ " She poked Pidge in the arm, "would want to go by it."

"Well, whatever-your-name-is." Lance said teasingly, but corrected himself when he saw Katie's eyes darken, "Katie. Katie, sorry. I'm glad to see you and Hunk awake, but what do you mean Keith and I argue like an old married couple?"

She rolled her eyes, "I _mean_ you two bicker about everything. That's not even an understatement. Last week, these two buffoons" She pointed between the healing pods and Other-Keith, "argued over whether eggs over-medium were better than eggs over-hard."

Lance and Keith almost simultaneously answered, "Over-hard" and "Over-medium" then turned to glare at each other.

"Wait, no." Lance started, turning to look at Keith, "How can you deal with the yoke? It's so slimy and weird and gro-"

Katie cut in between them before they could really get any conversation started, "No. No. I'm putting my foot down. This conversation lasted for almost an hour. There is no way in hell that I am going to sit through that argument again."

Both boys looked at each other with mild disdain.

"Well," Shiro said from the doorway, "As I mentioned earlier before you two barged in, I have food." He raised his arm slightly, but the plates tottered dangerously, and he quickly balanced them again, "I also would prefer that you actually ate the food _before_ it hits the floor.

"Our Hunk" He continued, "Which, I'm glad to see you're awake by the way- was able to grab some sort of spices from the last planet we were on, so the goo should actually have flavor. Don't get used to it; I honestly think that he only added them to try and show off to himself."

"Come on Shiro." This-Hunk said teasingly as he walked through the doorway carrying two more plates of food, "You weren't supposed to _tell_ them that. They were supposed to be amazed and think that our reality just naturally has better cooks than theirs."

"Well, it's obviously true." Lance said as he swiped one of the plates from Shiro's arm, "I don't think that anyone could top Hunk's cooking. Maybe not even Hunk himself. Sorry, Other-Hunk. Also, I think that's what we should call each other. This and Other. Wait. What about 'This' and 'That' that has a much better ring to it. What do you think, That-Keith?"

'That-Keith' pointedly glared at Lance, "I think that I would rather just go by 'Keith' and just guess who you're talking about." He grabbed a plate from Shiro, nodding his thanks, "Anything is better than being referred to as 'That-one-guy-over-there'"

Hunk walked over to himself and handed over a plate. "I am with Keith on this one. 'This' and 'That' seems really derogative." He handed the other plate to Katie, "Now, I'm going to go and get more plates of the stuff because we can't be bothered to eat at the table like civilized human beings."

He left the room before anyone could argue the injustice of being called uncivilized.

Nine raised her hand, "In my defense, I want to point out that not all of us are completely human. I, for one, am part robot."

Other-Keith scoffed good-naturedly, "Are you sure you're not missing anything a little more important?"

She made a show of tapping her chin with her finger in thought. Her lips pouted outwards in such a human gesture that it was hard to remember that she was as human as Keith. "Nah. I don't think so." She was trying and failing to hide her smile.

Lance looked at her from the corner of his eye and leaned over to Katie, "Am I missing something, Pidge? I feel like I'm missing something."

"Katie." She corrected around a mouthful of food. "Pidge has the glasses. I don't know why. Neither of us need them." She pointed first to the figure who had glasses lit up by the light from her computer, then to herself. Lance made a mental note to himself. **K** atie needs **k** now glasses (that works, right?), and **P** idge uses **p** the glasses. The 'p' was silent, just like in pterodactyl. "And, yes, you missed the fact that Nine is half-Galra."

Shiro cocked his head as he gave both Keith and Nine plates, "Lance, weren't you in the room when we figured this out?"

Lance shrugged as he took a bite of food, "I must not have thought it was very important. I mean, Keith is half-Galra, it couldn't have been _that_ big of a deal. We already have one Galraling on the team."

"Did you just call us 'Galraling's?" Both Keiths asked with damn near identical indignant looks.

"Yeah," He swallowed and explained, "Like baby geese are called goslings and baby ducks are called ducklings. You guys can totally be Galralings."

They looked at each other and even though they had only known each other for a matter of hours and those hours were spent apart, they had an entire damn conversation without saying a single word. Then, like fucking robots, they turned their heads in unison to look at Lance. Lance felt shivers shoot down his spine faster than the gladiators could put him on his ass.

"And why" One Keith started.

"Do you think," The other continued.

"That we would,"

"Be classified,"

"As _baby_ ,"

"Galra?" They finished together.

Lance swallowed thickly and glanced around the room at everyone else who was conveniently not looking at him except for Nine who had this shit-eating grin proudly plastered on her face.

"Y-you know…" He stuttered out and he set his half-finished plate of food goo down on the table next to him, "I think there's -um- someplace that I -uh- I really -uh- I really need to be. So… I'm just gonna… Just gonna… Go." He started to back out of the way and into the corridor only to back into Hunk who was coming back with two more plates of food. When they touched, Lance just about leaped out of his skin and made a noise that was decidedly _not_ human; he bolted out of the room.

"Did I… Miss anything?" Hunk asked cautiously. He handed Pidge a plate and kept the last one for himself, not missing a beat before he was digging in. They grabbed it without looking up from their computer.

The Keiths burst out laughing at the same time, quickly followed by Nine and Shiro. "Oh my god." This-Keith said as he wiped tears from his eyes -Tears! He didn't know the last time he had laughed so hard that he cried, "This might not be so bad after all."

 **A/N: So, I hope you guys enjoyed Chapter Three. I'm sorry it's shorter than my previous chapters and not a lot happened in it, but this was originally going to be a couple thousand words more than this but I cut it down so that you wouldn't go that long between updates... Please review or favorite it, because I live off of positive (or even negative) feedback. If y'all want to as well, you can also hop over to AO3 and read it there. Until next chapter!**


	4. Goofs and Gigs

**A/N: So... When I told y'all in my last update that this next chapter was going to be long... I didn't realize that it was going to be almost 11,000 words. I honestly thought it was going to be** ** _maybe_** **8,000 at the absolute most and here I am cutting some stuff so that it's smaller because it was originally 13,000 words... Anyways... please enjoy this update, I really hope you enjoy because I really enjoyed writing all of this.**

"Did you see his face?" Nine laughed. Her body was still shaking with occasional giggles, "That was perfect; I can't believe you guys."

 _Hsssssssssss_

"Lance!" This-Keith called into the hall, "Get your skinny ass back here. You're waking up!"

He called back, "Now… Don't blame me or anything. But, I'm really not so sure about going back into that room."

Other-Keith stood up in front of the door getting ready to catch his Lance when he came out.

"You're not going to get to meet yourself if you take any longer." He teased easily.

"I'm pretty sure that if I wanted to, I could just talk to myself later. You know, _after_ you guys have forgiven me."

"Just get in here, Lance," Shiro called back to him.

"Fine." He grumbled, after making a sound like he was being forced to clean the dishes after a family gathering. He poked his head into the room and rushed to Shiro's side, conveniently opposite of both Keiths.

The door on the healing pod swung open silently and a cloud of mist escaped to the ceiling before Lance fell unceremoniously into Other-Keith's arms. He squinted through his blurry vision at the person holding him and formed a half-assed smirk on his lips. "Well, looks like I'm really-"

"Lance, I swear to fuck." Keith interrupted him, "If you finish that sentence I will drop you."

Lance seemed to weigh the pros and cons in his mind before he continued, " _falling_ for you."

Keith dropped his support faster than everyone else thought possible and Lance fell like a sack of potatoes, but he didn't seem to mind. He was laughing almost uncontrollably, and he caressed the shining floor, "It's okay. The floor will always be there to catch me."

Nine groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Ugh… put it back."

Other-Lance sprung to his feet in a short hop and when he landed back on the floor, his prosthetic made a slight _ting_. "I love you too, Nine."

"Yeah, yeah." Nine said, finally smiling, and opening her arms for a hug, "Get over here, you insufferable ass." They embraced warmly before she joked, "Now, your time in the pod really did a number on your skin. I think I can see a pimple forming."

He jumped back, grabbing at his face and looking for a mirror. His eyes flew past his counterpart and snapped back in shock, "Woah… Freaky." He looked around the circle at the two Keiths, two Hunks, Katie, and Pidge. "Really… Freaky… Are you sure I don't need a little more time in the healing pods?" He leaned over to his Keith to ask.

"As much as I'd like to agree with that, we're in another reality." He answered.

"Do I really sound like you?" This-Lance asked from across the room, "Because I sound fucking awesome."

"I think you might need to get your ears checked," Pidge nudged him in the ribs, earning a small yelp from the taller of the two, "Because you sound almost exactly the same, but you don't sound good."

"Listen, short stack. You might be going deaf because he," Lance pointed at the other him, "Sounds great and his skin is absolutely flawless."

"Why thank you, me." The other said charmingly and plastering a flirty smirk on his face.

"You're welcome, me." Lance mirrored his own expression and shot it right back to himself.

This-Keith groaned and rubbed his temples, "Please don't tell me that this is all your conversations are going to be? I knew it was going to be bad, but I had hoped it wouldn't be _this_ bad."

Other-Lance turned his dazzling smirk to Keith, "It's only going to get worse, and you know it."

Keith nodded sadly, "I expected as much. If you want me, I'll be in my bunk."

"WAIT!" Other-Lance yelled and threw his hands in the air before Keith could leave the room, "What day on Earth is it?"

Shiro looked at him quizzically, "I think it's a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Why?"

Lance's smile grew exponentially and he turned to look at the rest of the members of his team. For some reason, the other members felt shivers run down their spines because if Lance was excited about something, they were either going to love it or hate it. Seeing as how his smile was still growing, chances were that they were going to hate it.

"You heard Shiro." Lance was still smiling wider than Keith thought was physically possible; weren't his cheeks hurting? "It's either Tuesday, or we missed Tuesday. And you know what that means."

Nine groaned and her face fell almost instantaneously, "Lance, can we please not do it this week? You literally just got out of a healing pod and we need to figure out this whole other reality shit and-"

Lance's hand shot up in a talk-to-the-hand gesture and silenced her efficiently, "Nope! Not a chance!" He threw an arm around Keith -not his Keith- and walked confidently out the doorway.

"Lance, where the fuck are we going?" Keith asked out from under his arm, "Also, I think you grabbed the wrong me." He wanted away from the unwelcome weight, but something about the casual gesture made him hesitate. Maybe Other-Lance was still unsteady from his time in the pod? Yeah. That must be it.

He shrugged, "You've seen one Keith, you've seen them all."

Nine had wrestled the others from the group into a line to follow behind them. She called out, "What, do you guys not have Tuesday Night Karaoke?"

" _Karaoke_?" This-Keith most certainly did not squeak. He was a man and men did not raise two octaves at the mention of singing.

"Yeah," Katie smiled behind the two in front. Of course she was smiling. Why wouldn't she be smiling? It was just singing. In front of other people. But those other people were friends. It was just singing. "I mean, it's not traditional Karaoke, that's for sure. We put someone's phone on shuffle and hook up the audio to the speakers on the training deck. The castle-ship is really good at deciphering English from just the audio files and it displays the lyrics on one of the walls.

"Granted, the singer is still going on in the background, but we found a way to lower their volume so we could keep the rest of the music. Then we wear the same bands that we have for those mind-opening exercises and we can make illusions to mime out some of the lyrics. Lance usually dances with them."

"Don't you dare think about dissing my dancing. My dancing is top-notch." The blue paladin interrupted her.

Katie rolled her eyes and continued explaining their version of Karaoke that was sounding less and less like Karaoke the more she explained it. "Anyways, the music is on shuffle, so whoever wants to jump into the center of the room and sing can do it whenever they want. Duets are totally welcome, even duets that aren't _technically_ supposed to be duets." She glared at Lance.

He raised his arms in surrender, and Keith took that opportunity to duck away from him. Lance shot a worried look his way, but didn't ask anything about it, "Listen, there were some pretty good songs, and I couldn't let them all go to waste on Keith's singing. Also." He jumped past Keith and turned around backwards while still talking, "I call my music."

Other-Keith groaned, "But all you have is pop music and Shakira."

"And all _you_ have are depressing songs." Lance retaliated as if they had had this conversation several times before. "I'm sorry but _Hips Don't Lie_ is better than _Hear Me_ any day."

"Oh my God, Keith!" This-Lance called from the back of the line, "We really need to work on your music taste."

"There is nothing wrong with Imagine Dragons! They've got some great songs." This-Keith defended. "The music isn't repetitive like a lot of the stuff you listen to."

"Ugh. I bet you like _Demons_ too."

"What's wrong with _Demons_?" Both Keiths asked at the same time sending identical glares his way. Lance had a sudden moment of deja vu and practically leaped behind Shiro.

"Hey, so… If the Keiths kill me, you'll avenge me, right?" He asked, peeking his head over Shiro's shoulder.

Shiro laughed, "Hell no, there's _two_ of them and only one of me. Maybe talk to your counterpart."

"There is no goddamn way that I would challenge Keith. He'll take my leg." Other-Lance said from the front and knocked on his prosthetic twice, "Sorry, man."

"We all know Keith's still going to disconnect your leg sometime this night." Nine said behind Katie, "It's the one thing he's actually predictable about."

Other-Keith scoffed, "I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult."

"Choose to take it as a compliment." Katie smiled, "It's the only one you're going to get tonight."

"Ouch." This-Keith monotoned.

A crackling sound came over the speakers that Pidge could never seem to find, "Paladins." It was Allura's voice, "Where did you run off to? Coran and I are in the med bay, and Lance is gone as well as everyone else."

"I got this," This-Lance said and he leaned over to a seemingly inconspicuous line. "Med Bay." He said softly, then took a deep breath and screamed, "DON'T WORRY, WE'RE STILL ALIVE. SEE YOU ON THE TRAINING DECK." He launched himself away from the wall and pushed through everyone in front of him, "Now we run and hope Allura doesn't kill me later."

"How the fuck do you know where the microphones are?!" Pidge screamed at him as she started running in pursuit. She had an early lead to the rest of them, but once Lance and Keith and Keith started running through the hall, she was quickly overtaken. The rest of the group quickly caught up and This-Hunk even reached down and put her on his shoulders.

"Lance!" Shiro bellowed to be heard over the thunder of feet, "You want to tell us _why_ we're running from Allura?"

Maniacal laughter ricocheted off the walls of the hallway in an answer.

The four frontrunners who were surprisingly evenly paced overshot the training deck entirely, instead running straight past it. They were on a crash course to the wall in the 'T' intersection before any of them realized they had completely missed their mark. The first to realize it, was, of course, Keith (it was hard to tell exactly which one) who was in the very front and pulled up short. Other-Lance was right behind him and crashed right into him, sending them both sprawling. The others went down quickly after that, falling like dominoes and landing in a heap of blue, red, and black.

"Did you guys miss something?" Pidge asked from Hunk's panting shoulders. Her hair was disheveled and her glasses were askew, so even if she needed to wear them, they wouldn't have done her any good. Her face was red, but her lips were smiling.

The four of them had landed with Other-Lance underneath This-Keith in one pile and Other-Keith underneath This-Lance. They all groaned pittily and tried to dislodge whoever was on top of them.

"Pidge, I don't have time for your shit right now." Other-Lance bemoaned, "Keith, mueve tu trasero de mi."

From the other pile, Other-Keith answered, "Tambien a te, Lance"

This-Lance jolted up off of Keith as if he was burned as soon as the words were out of his mouth, "Since when do you know Spanish?"

This-Keith also looked quizzically at himself then addressed Lance, " _I_ don't know Spanish. Well, I can count to ten, but I don't think that counts."

"You guys can figure out when Keith became bilingual later." Katie interrupted. She walked onto the training deck, "I need to jerry-rig this whole thing again because our alter-egos don't know how to have fun."

"We know how to have fun!" This-Lance defended, "I mean, we got into a food fight as one of our first bonding moments!"

Other-Hunk smiled and spoke for the first time in a while, "Yeah, same here. But do _you_ guys have Karaoke nights every Tuesday? Or whatever-the-hell-we-do-every-Friday?"

"What do you guys do on Fridays?" Shiro asked curiously. He crossed his arms over his chest with his prosthetic on top. He made quite the imposing figure until you looked at his face which featured a warm smile that was instantly disarming.

Other-Keith raised his hand, "I came up with it to help our fighting styles. We all pick a weapon and put the name of it in a hat. Then we put a number, one through five in another hat, and one person picks a paper from each hat. They have to fight that number of bots with that weapon. It helps you learn to not rely on your primary weapon that your bayard gives you, and it also lets you laugh your ass off when Lance gets a dagger and 4 bots."

Other-Lance opened his mouth to retaliate, "Listen, just because you're perfect-"

"Thank you." Keith interrupted with a smile and only grinned wider when Lance glared at him.

He tried again, "Just because you're perfect with almost any weapon you pick up doesn't belittle the rest of the team for not being as good with anything they just happen to find on the ground. And you did look really fucking weird with that ax thing on a stick."

"Ah, yes. The ax-on-a-stick. Such a fearsome weapon." Pidge deadpanned. She had been lowered from Hunk's shoulders sometime while they were arguing, and Katie had disappeared into the room hopefully figuring out how to get their 'Karaoke' running.

Other-Keith rolled his eyes, "Do you mean the halberd, Lance?"

"Yes! That. Ax-on-a-stick. Halberd." He nodded definitively, a smug smile on his face.

Keith opened his mouth to respond, but before he could respond the song _Single Ladies_ started blaring from the training deck. It was almost loud enough to drown the sudden screech that Katie made at her sudden success. Almost, but not enough.

As soon as the music had started, it was instantly shut off again and a shaky, "I got it to work." floated to the rest of the team.

"Oh, come on!" both Lances shouted, "Katie, why do you go and tease us like that?"

She swung herself into the door frame smiling, "Because some of us value our ears."

Other-Lance rolled his eyes, but smiled as well, "You're one to talk, none of your music even has lyrics."

Katie gestured for them to follow her into the room. She had already gathered the bands from the mind-bonding exercises and they were placed in a pile by a plate that had been removed, exposing wires from the castle. What looked to be Lance's phone was dangling from another cord, the screen was lit up and displaying the album cover for _I_ _am… Sasha Fierce_.

Lance grabbed it and tapped the screen a few times. He cautiously lowered the volume before pressing shuffle on the playlist. Nothing came over the speakers for a few seconds, but then a steady bass beat enveloped them. He smiled slyly and glanced over at his Keith and called out, "Hey, it's your song!"

Other-Keith's eyes widened in recognition and he moved across the space that separated them. He reached out to grab the phone from Lance's hands, but Lance was surprisingly able to keep the phone out of his reach.

The beats stopped, the lyrics started, and Keith's face fell. " _He calls me the Devil. I make him wanna sin_ " Lance started singing along with the song, mischief in his eyes, " _But every time I knock, he can't help but let me in._ "

"Lance please." Keith whispered, "I sang it _one time_."

" _Must be homesick for the real._ " The song continued, " _I'm the_ realest _it gets. You probably still adore me, with my hands around your neck_ -"

Lance cut the music off, "I think that's enough for now at least. Besides, as soon as I'm up there, he's going to get his revenge. I can only ask for a tiny bit of mercy."

The glare that Keith shot straight through him made it very clear that mercy would not be an option.

"LANCE!" A voice roared from outside the deck and across the space, This-Lance paled in utter terror. Allura appeared in the doorway wrapped in regality and wrath on her face. She looked around the room and her gaze settled on Other-Lance. She stormed over to him, cutting off any protests that he could muster before they even came into his mind, "What have I told you about yelling into the mics? They are supposed to be spoken into and you can burst the speakers in whatever room you're speaking into if you scream at the top of your lungs!"

Lance's mouth was moving, but it didn't sound like any sound was coming out. His hands were gesturing wildly, but they finally settled on simply pointing at his counterpart across the room wordlessly.

Allura's eyes followed his pointing finger to the Lance across the room. She looked down at Other-Lance's metal leg and then into his eyes. Her own were suddenly filled with regret, "Oh… sorry… Lance." She spoke, "I apologize for the confusion and any trauma you might have endured." She spun on her heel and stormed over to This-Lance.

He ducked behind This-Hunk muttering something along the lines of, "Save me. Please."

When Allura stood right in front of him, the large man had never seemed so small. Without saying anything, he stepped to the side, exposing Lance to the unbridled fury that was coursing through the princess' veins. She grabbed him by the ear in a very motherly way and hauled him out of the room. The rest of the group looked around at each other in the awkward silence that ensued.

Wordlessly, Other-Lance tapped his phone a few times and the gentle strumming of a guitar started playing softly through the room. " _If I die young, bury me in satin. Lay me down on a bed of roses, sink me in the river, at dawn. Send me away with the words of a love song._ " Everyone almost immediately burst out laughing, breaking the tension that Allura had left.

Pidge shot him an appreciative glance over her glasses, "It's quite fitting, although I would have gone for something a little more definitive because the lyrics are _If_ I die young. I think he's _actually_ going to die."

"I'm going to… um… rein her in as best I can…" Shiro said, unsure of himself.

Lance turned the volume up.

Shiro rolled his eyes as he left the room, mentally preparing himself for the confrontation with Allura. Coran waltzed into the room right after he left. "Well, it's a good thing that we found you five because it looks like we might be down a paladin sometime soon."

"That bad, huh?" Nine asked smiling at the door.

Coran shrugged and twisted his mustache familiarly, "I'd say that he might be down an ear. Humans don't need both, do they? I believe it lends credence to the Earth-phrase 'talking your ear off' doesn't it?"

"Humans can technically survive without either of our ears." Pidge said helpfully, "However, I think that Lance needs both his ears to listen to us properly."

He nodded his head, "I'll be right back, see if I can quell her."

Coran moved to the door but was stopped when it opened and Lance was unceremoniously tossed onto the deck by a sated Allura. He slowly ducked out and around the corner hoping to avoid any residual anger that the Altean princess had in her bloodstream.

Lance leaped behind Hunk once more and peeked his eyes over the other's shoulder. "I have seen death and have lived to tell about it."

"It couldn't have been _that_ bad." Hunk said trying to peer over his own shoulder to look at his stowaway.

"Well, paladins and paladins." Allura said calmly, a warmth radiating from her smile that belied nothing of the last time they had seen her, "I would absolutely love to know what this… Karaoke… is."

"Great!" Other-Lance said as he cut off the last song and looked through his phone again, "Keith's gonna go first as an example." He clapped his hand on his shoulder comfortingly

Other-Keith groaned, "Why do _I_ have to go first, you can go first, Nine can go first, anyone can go first."

"Because," Katie started to explain, "As much as it pains me to say, you have the best thing out of all of us."

"It's a performance." Other-Lance encouraged happily and he pushed Keith out to the middle of the floor without looking up from the screen. "Now, get the band thing and get ready for the song to come on."

Seeing no way out of the situation, Keith deflated and grabbed one of the bands, securing it around his head tightly, "Is it the one that I always do?"

Other-Lance smiled, "Of course it is, mullet. I'm not an idiot, although, after this, the playlist is going on shuffle." He tapped one last time on his screen and quiet music started to play, "Now, everyone sit down, and watch the demonstration."

In the center of the room, Other-Keith tested the holograms that he was able to form before the lyrics started. He breathed in deeply through his nose and out through his mouth in an attempt to calm himself. Slowly, He started to sing in lieu of the artist.

Slowly, he formed the illusion of darkness and fog around himself that made it look like he was on the front of a boat in the murk.

 _They send me away To find them a fortune_

A chest filled with Diamonds and Gold

Keith waved his hands, disturbing the fog of the illusion into the shape of a treasure chest. He waved his hands again and the impression changed to that of an abandoned house.

 _The house was awake the shadows and monsters_

 _The hallways, they echoed and groaned_

He moved to his knees and the fog surrounded his body more closely until wherever he moved, the fog followed ominously.

 _I sat alone in bed until morning_

 _I'm crying they're coming for me_

Keith hadn't moved since the last verse, but he dissolved the fog around him from that of a hallway into that of monsters that reached with thin and spindly limbs. The creatures were a dark grey and their claws reached towards Keith's huddling figure, but before they reached him, he started the next verse.

 _And I tried to hold these secrets inside me_

 _My mind's like a deadly disease_

All of a sudden, Keith was on his feet, simply standing there. He hadn't jumped or put his hands on the ground. He was on his knees one moment and the next, he was on his feet.

 _I'm bigger than my body_

The fog that clung to him expanded out, creating the effect of a much larger version of Keith that blew away when he sang the next line.

 _I'm colder than this home_

The entire area darkened considerably and the fog dissipated with an imaginary wind leaving only the illusionary creatures behind.

 _I'm meaner than my demons_

The creatures shrunk and when Keith brushed a hand through their bodies they broke apart and followed the rest of the fog in disappearing.

 _I'm bigger than these bones_

Keith rolled his shoulders back and took up more space with his arms so that he looked much bigger than he actually was.

 _And all the kids cried out,_

 _'Please stop you're scaring me'_

 _I can't help this awful energy_

Several humanoid forms sprouted from the ground wearing bright pinks and blues. There was one of a little girl with blond pigtails and a look of utter terror on her face. They ran in all directions, gesticulating wildly and only exploded into a puff of smoke when they ran into another person or a wall. Keith had gotten down on one knee as if he were trying to console the kids, but now he stood up and it looked like he plucked a ball of dark purple energy straight out of his heart and put it back in as if he were ashamed.

 _Goddamn right you should be scared of me_

Keith's eyes flashed yellow and his movements became jerky and sharp. He stepped forward and waved his hands as if to say good riddance to the children that were running from him.

 _Who is in control?_

The yellow in Keith's eyes flickered on and off dangerously, and he gripped his head as if he had the worst headache known to man.

He went along with the rest of the song easily. The fog rose again for the next verse and he carved it along to the song.

 _I paced around for hours on empty_

 _I jumped at the slightest of sounds_

 _And I couldn't stand the person inside me_

 _I turned all the mirrors around_

He formed a mirror to look into and when he did, his reflection featured the yellow eyes from earlier on in the song. He repeated the same movements for the pre-chorus and chorus, but this time, the yellow eyes on him stayed for a bit longer than they had before, and he added a sly smile to the end of it.

 _I'm well acquainted with villains that live in my head_

 _They beg me to write them so they'll never die when I'm dead_

He stood perfectly still in the center of the room. Nothing around him moved as he quietly sang the words. On one of the dings in the song, he cocked his head to the side and his eyes glowed pure yellow. It truly looked like he was insane.

 _And I've grown familiar with villains that live in my head_

 _They beg me to write them so I'll never die when I'm dead_

He went through the chorus twice more, and his eyes glowed brighter and brighter with every word. Instead of looking conflicted when the children ran from him, he embraced the feeling, walking among their terror and smiling all the time. When it came to the last line, the illusion remained on one half of his face, while the rest of it disappeared.

 _Who is in control?_

Everyone was still for a moment before Allura casually commented, "That was… quite something." Keith took off the band smiling and the rest of the illusion completely vanished.

He walked over to the rest of them and placed his band on the bench next to the others. "I'd like to see someone top _that_." He held out a fist for a bump and Other-Lance met him halfway, grinning wildly.

"I'm gonna go and put the rest of the playlist on shuffle." Other-Lance said, "Enjoy your newly found fame before the next song comes on."

This-Lance looked at Keith as if he were in awe, "Well, shit." He said, "How the hell do you do that?"

Other-Hunk stepped in, "He's the only one that can concentrate hard enough and long enough for it to look that cool. I can create silhouettes; Lance usually just does color changes, but he also makes up for it with a lot of moving. Pidge can sometimes do things that look that real, but the animations never look that fluid. Nine can't actually wear it because of her implant, which sucks because she'd probably be the best."

A drastic change from the last song came on, with a steady and fast-paced beat that thrummed through their chests and went straight to their hearts. Other-Hunk smiled, "Speaking of which, this is my song." He adjusted the bandana he was wearing so that it wouldn't interfere with the mind-meld band.

 _Can you feel it?_

 _Now it's coming back, we can steal it._

 _If we bridge this gap_

 _I can see you_

 _Through the curtains of the waterfall_

He sang along happily, bouncing left and right through the lyrics. He created a mirage of water at his feet and a few rocks around him, but they lacked the depth that Keith's illusions had been, but they were considerably brighter and more colorful. Hunk smiled all the way through the verse and made the universal sign for 'watching you' and gestured to his audience.

 _When I lost it_

 _Yeah you held my hand_

 _But I tossed it_

 _Didn't understand_

 _You were waiting_

 _As I dove into the waterfall_

Hunk formed a fuzzy impression of a person that dove into the miraged pool of water. The figure shone where it was supposed to be in the dark water in a great imitation of human swimming.

 _So Say! Geronimo_

 _Say! Geronimo_

 _Say! Geronimo_

 _Say! Geronimo_

 _Say! Geronimo_

 _Say! Geronimo_

 _Say! Geronimo_

On every punctuated word, He jumped up and the figure rose out of the water with its hands raised above its head. The entire song was fun and fast and nothing like Keith's previous song, but it was so undeniably _Hunk_ that no one minded the musical whiplash.

 _Can you feel my Love?_

 _Bombs away_

 _Bombs away_

 _Bombs away_

He summoned a cliff from thin air and the fuzzy figure appeared at the top waving down at the paladins. On the first lyric of _Bombs away_ it took a running start and cannon-balled into the water, but before it broke the surface, it reappeared at the top for the next lyric. The figure crossed its arms in front of its chest and leaned back, letting the illusion of gravity pull it down, but it disappeared right before it hit the surface again. On the last lyric, it went for a straight old-fashioned belly-flop that sent waves of imaginary water out in ripples to soak the friends that were watching.

Overall, the entire performance seemed to move much more than Keith's. It took a much more positive spin on the entire rest of the night. When he was done, he was panting and his shirt was damp with sweat, but his smile was brighter than any of the colors that his mind had produced.

"There's the Hunk I know and love!" Other-Lance said, pumping his fist into the air and jumping on his friend's back.

Hunk just laughed along and tried to swing Lance off of him, but the other had his arms locked tight together around his neck. The blue paladin wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

The opening chords of the next song started to play over the speakers and oddly enough, Shiro's eyes widened slightly, "Hey, Lance." he asked, "Is this _Stay_ by Rhianna?"

"Yeah, I think." Other-Lance said, "Why?"

A smile slowly spread over Shiro's face, "Can you pause it and start it over really quick. I want to see if I can introduce Allura to Karaoke." He turned to try and get the Altean to participate in the bizarre version of the Earth sensation.

Lance nodded to Other-Keith, "Keith, you know my passcode, right? I'm trying to see how long I can piggyback off of Hunk before he kicks me into a wall." He wrapped his legs as best as he could around the larger man in order to try and cement his point. "Please don't fuck with the language again, it took me forever and a Korean to English Dictionary to fix it last time."

"Yeah, sure." Keith nodded easily and tapped the screen a few times more than necessary and smiling to himself. "Don't fuck with the language, got it."

"Invert the colors!" Nine called from her seat next to Katie.

Katie's eyes shone through the polish of her glasses, "Turn voice over on. It's one of the most frustrating things to try and fix."

"Don't worry guys," Other-Keith called back, "It's subtle enough that he won't notice it for a while and it'll confuse the hell out of him when he finally figures it out."

"Hold on…" This-Lance interjected from where he had been sitting to watch the others sing, "Why does Keith know the passcode to your phone? That's like, him knowing the passcode to look into your br-"

"I think I've explained it to her enough." Shiro called to Keith, "I'm gonna help her with timing and stuff like that, though. Could you maybe turn the vocals on as well to help keep us on track?"

Katie hopped down from where she had been perched, "I've got you, Shiro. Although you do realize that it's not karaoke if you sing with the artist."

He sighed, "Yeah, but this isn't exactly classic karaoke to start with, so I'll take my losses for what they are. Anyway, 'Llura, you ready?"

"No, but I don't think I have an option." She glanced over her shoulder at Shiro, "All I have to do is sing what I see on the wall right in front of me?"

"Yep, and unlike Keith and Hunk, you'll have someone to sing with." Shiro nodded as he walked over to her, holding his hand out for her to take. She took it with a small blush appearing on her cheeks, "May I have this song, my lady?" He asked as the first chords of the song started playing again.

She nodded and turned to face the screen just as the words started to appear. Her voice was good, but she didn't have the timing down whatsoever, so the first verse was an awful mix of her lagging behind or rushing ahead of the singer. She seemed embarrassed by it, but Shiro simply smiled through it until it came to his portion of the song.

 _It's not much of a life you're living_

 _It's not just something you take, it's given_

And _fuck_ could Shiro sing. It wasn't something that often came up around normal conversation, but now everyone was wondering just why it hadn't been discussed. Keith was good, but his appeal mostly came from the low notes that he could hit, and Hunk's voice was incredibly soft. Shiro's was a melodic and sinful combination of the two that should have been illegal in all retrospect.

 _Round and around and around and around we go_

 _Oh now, tell me now, tell me now, tell me now, you know_

He twirled easily on the lyrics, trying to goad Allura into doing something other than just standing there in the middle of the training deck. He swayed from side to side and grabbed her hands from her sides encouraging her to sway along with him.

 _Not really sure how to feel about it_

 _Something in the way you move_

 _Makes me feel like I can't live without you_

 _It takes me all the way_

 _I want you to stay_

He squeezed her hand comfortingly before they started the next lines together; his voice supporting hers so flawlessly, it almost didn't matter that she was singing the song for the first time.

 _The reason I hold on_

 _'Cause I need this hole gone_

 _Funny you're the broken one but I'm the only one who needed saving_

 _'Cause when you never see the light it's hard to know which one of us is caving_

Magically, Allura aced the timing of the last chorus that they sang together. They smiled into each other's eyes and it looked like they were discovering love for the first time in their lives.

 _Not really sure how to feel about it_

 _Something in the way you move_

 _Makes me feel like I can't live without you_

 _It takes me all the way_

 _I want you to stay, stay_

 _I want you to stay._

The room was quiet long enough for the first beats of the next song to come on before the others were wrenched out of their stupor. They stood up from their seats and practically rushed the two of them like teenagers at their favorite band's concert.

"Oh my god, since when do you sing?"

"Are you and Allura, like, together?"

"You two sounded amazing!"

"How did we not know that Shiro knew how to sing?"

"You're going to sing everything you say from now on, Shiro."

"Allura, your voice was great too!"

"Can both of you teach me how to sing?"

The two of them looked stunned for a few moments, but they started laughing about a moment later. Allura leaned into Shiro who slung his prosthetic over her shoulder and pulled her closer. She looked up at him questioningly, "So are we telling them now?"

He shrugged back down at her, "I mean it seems like as good a time as any." She nodded, leaned into him, and melted against him familiarly.

"Wait." This-Lance said, "You mean, Space-mom and Space-dad are officially together?"

Shiro cocked an eyebrow, "Is that really what you guys call us?"

Pidge rolled her eyes, "Uh, yeah. Duh. You're both easily the most mature people in this place. I mean, Keith's close, but no one wants to call him 'dad'."

"Thank you for that." This-Keith said and ruffled her hair, "So, how long has this been going on? Because you guys have been ogling each other since Allura got captured and Shiro flipped his shit. I honestly thought it started then."

They both reddened and stuttered out replies, "R-right after Shiro got back." Allura said, "It was about an Earth-month ago."

Pidge stuck her hand out smugly and both Keith and Lance handed over a few dollars, "Suck it."

"You guys make such a cute couple!" This-Hunk exclaimed happily. He wrapped his arms around the two of them and pulled them into a warm embrace. The rest of the paladins excitedly piled on, and you almost couldn't see the two of them at the center anymore.

After what seemed like not-long-enough, they all broke apart wearing separate smiles that all seemed to look the same.

"Ew, why are Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb being boring and not a part of the Shallura celebration party?" Pidge asked, still smiling and even sticking her tongue out teasingly.

The rest of the group turned to look at the sidelines. Sure enough, Other-Lance and Keith were sitting there. Lance wore a soft smile on his face, and his hand was resting comfortingly on Keith's knee which wouldn't stop bouncing. Keith was scowling, and his bottom lip pouted out in a way that would have been hilarious if he didn't also look like he was holding back tears.

Lance squeezed his knee and slid his hand away. Keith blinked a few times before forcing a smile, "Sorry, zoned out there for a minute. You guys make a really cute couple."

This-Hunk cocked his head, "Are you sure, dude? You looked like someone just shot a puppy in front of you."

"Yeah. It's fine." Keith replied curtly.

Shiro frowned, "Sorry for trying to pry, but you don't look fine, Keith."

Keith started to nod again, but stopped himself, "Yeah, it's just…" He struggled to find the words, "You're just so _nice_ in this reality."

"You mean, he's not nice in yours?" This-Lance questioned seriously, "But… he's _Shiro_ I didn't think he had the ability to not be nice."

Keith shook his head, "No. Our Shiro is kind of a dick. No offense. But, there are a few reasons why he isn't a paladin anymore."

Everyone was silent as they took in the information, "What kind of reasons?" Shiro prodded.

"Well first of all." Nine said, "As soon as he learned about Keith being half-Galra, he treated him like less than shit. He had been doing it with me before, but I had a bit of experience growing up with the Galra scientists."

"But before that…" Keith started, "I mean, he was a dick to me before that as well. I don't know how similar things are in this universe, but before the Kerberos mission, Shiro and I were a couple."

"Oh." This-Lance said and This-Keith glared at him, "Sorry, just out of all of the things I expected, a bi-Keith was not at the top."

This-Keith scoffed at him, "Not quite right. I'm about as gay as they come." He ignored Lance's indignant squack beside him and he prompted himself again, "Not that I haven't considered dating Shiro. Go on."

Other-Keith leaned over. His arms were on his legs and he had his hands clasped in front of him, twiddling his thumbs. Sometime when they had all looked away, Lance had placed his hand back on Keith's knee. "It was great for the first year or so, but a week before he left for the mission, I found him and Matt… together. He wasn't even apologetic about it.

"I didn't talk to him the rest of the time when he was on Earth. Then, Kerberos happened and he disappeared. I honestly didn't know how to feel, because, on one hand, the guy who cheated on me was most likely dead, but on the other, my boyfriend of one year was most likely dead.

"He came back after escaping from the Galra prison, and I hoped that whatever had been between us before would happen again because Shiro was one of the best things that had happened to me. Then he was angry with _me_ because _I_ hadn't spoken with him for a week before he left for Kerberos.

"Things didn't get better after that either. While we were on missions, he would send jabs my way. Not the playful things that Lance says either. It was always belittling me in some form or the other, it was fucking hell.

"But then he found out that I was half-Galra and everything got so much worse. He started calling me out in the middle of team-bonding exercises and at dinner." Keith shrugged, "Finally, Lance stood up for me. He said that if Shiro was going to lead by fear then he shouldn't be leading at all. Things got heated, and almost came to blows, but then Hunk, Katie, and Nine all joined in and agreed. After that, he just… left."

"We don't know where he is now." Other-Lance commented, "It seems really bad, but I honestly don't care. I can't stand it when people hurt my friends, even if it's other friends."

"I'm sorry," Shiro whispered. He looked as if he had seen a ghost. The hug that he had been sharing with Allura didn't look as warm as it had a few minutes ago. "I haven't done anything like that in this reality, at least… not on purpose." All of the paladins from his reality shook their heads, "But I'm sorry that I could've been so cruel to someone I consider a best friend."

Other-Keith smiled softly, "Thanks. Although you don't have much to apologize for."

Everyone was silent for a few moments, but it wasn't uncomfortable whatsoever; it was more of a respectful silence.

"Well, even if it was Shiro." This-Lance said, "He sounded like a pretty big dick and I'm glad that you decided to cut him out. Now. I have an idea for a song, but I'm not sure that it'll be on your phone." He pointed to himself and his tone of voice made it obvious that he was trying to lighten the mood.

"What song is it?" Other-Lance asked, "Chances are if you have it, then I'll have it as well."

This-Lance's face heated up, "It's-It's uh… Can I just look for it? I don't want to say it out loud until I know for a fact that you have it."

Other-Lance's face screwed up in confusion, "I don't... " His eyes widened in realization and he smirked knowingly, "Oh. I think I know what song it is. Yeah. I've got it. The code is one-zero-two-three. It's in the 'guilty pleasure' playlist." This-Lance smiled and moved over to the phone.

"Oh no." Nine laughed, "Not the guilty pleasure playlist. What atrocities will we be subjected to?"

"I'm more worried of the fact that Lance didn't want to say the name of the song." Katie said, "I've heard a lot of things come out of his mouth that probably shouldn't have. What does that entail for this song?"

Other-Lance laughed, "Don't worry. It's not bad or anything, it's just a guilty pleasure. Something you don't want everyone to know you know all the lyrics to by heart."

"Hold on, dude some of these songs are like, depression center." Lance called over from the phone, " _Happier_ , _Jar of Hearts_ , and _Supermarket Flowers_? Where's all the fun and happy stuff?"

"In another playlist." Other-Lance said helpfully, "They're mostly songs that Keith likes, and we needed songs that he knows because he apparently didn't want to sing to Beyonce or Adele all the time. I don't understand why he wouldn't want to though."

This-Lance looked over at This-Keith, "Do you, like, need a hug or something? Because I listened to _Supermarket Flowers_ one time and I cried for an hour."

Both Keiths rolled their eyes, "They're all really good songs. Don't judge us." This-Keith defended as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Whatever you say, dude." He smiled, "Got it.". The first strums from a guitar came over the speakers and Lance walked over to the center, "Alright guys, get ready for the absolute best song of the night."

"It's awfully hard to top the last one, so unless you're going to come out and say that you're also dating someone, you're out of luck."

"Shhhhhhh." He said, holding up his hands dramatically, "It's starting soon."

 _I'm going out tonight, I'm feeling alright_

 _Gonna let it all hang out_

 _Want to make some noise, really raise my voice_

 _Yeah, I want to scream and shout_

"No fucking way." This-Keith smiled, "He's never living this down."

 _No inhibitions, make no conditions_

 _Get a little out of line_

 _I ain't gonna act politically correct_

 _I only want to have a good time_

"I don't think I know this song," Pidge said from her place between Katie and Shiro.

"Just wait," Keith said, still smiling.

 _The best thing about being a woman_

 _Is the prerogative to have a little fun and_

Lance hadn't moved from where he was standing, but he finally raised his head right before he dove into the chorus.

 _Oh oh oh, go totally crazy, forget I'm a lady_

 _Men's shirt's short skirts_

 _Oh oh oh, Really go wild yeah, doin' it in style_

 _Oh oh oh, Get in the action, feel the attraction_

 _Color my hair, do what I dare_

 _Oh oh oh, I want to be free, yeah, to feel the way I feel_

 _Man! I feel like a woman_

Lance had started swinging his hips seductively, an embarrassed smile played on his face, but he was fully committed to his role. He acted as if he was messing his hair up around his face.

 _The girls need a break tonight we're gonna take_

 _The chance to get out on the town_

 _We don't need romance, we only want to dance_

 _We're gonna let our hair hang down_

His audience in the stands was in hysterics. They watched him as he strutted across the floor as if he were on a runway. All of his reservations about singing this song were gone, and he was fully enjoying himself.

 _The best part about being a woman_

 _Is the prerogative to have a little fun and_

He stopped in the middle, throwing his hands out to the side. He smiled widely as he started the chorus.

 _Oh oh oh, go totally crazy, forget I'm a lady_

 _Men's shirt's short skirts_

He popped the jacket that he was wearing out, snapping it back in place. Then he wrapped it around him and drew a line where it ended to indicate the short skirts. He started jumping right before the next few lines.

 _Oh oh oh, Really go wild yeah, doin' it in style_

 _Oh oh oh, Get in the action, feel the attraction_

 _Color my hair, do what I dare_

 _Oh oh oh, I want to be free yeah, to feel the way I feel_

 _Man! I feel like a woman_

The movement on the deck stopped when he sang the last lines and he managed to sing it in an almost exact replication of Shania Twain's voice.

He sang the chorus again, much to everyone's enjoyment, getting more and more involved. When he finished, he stood in the middle of the floor, panting hard and dripping with sweat.

The last chords finished and everyone dissolved into laughter.

"Oh my god." Hunk said, giggling like a lunatic, "I honestly didn't expect country."

"We thought that it was going to be something really risque like _Pony_ or something that was going to scar us."

"I mean…" Other-Lance smiled, "I _could_ put _Pony_ on… _S & M_ is always fun."

"Let's not and say we did," Katie suggested helpfully, she started to say something else but was interrupted by the rhythmic clapping of the next song instantly starting.

The smile already plastered on Other-Lance's face grew a mile or more, "Yes! I've got this one guys." He rushed through the bulk of his friends and almost tripped over himself in his rush to get to the center. "I missed the first chorus because it starts right away, so now I'm gonna awkwardly stand here until the first verse st-"

 _It's been a long night here, and a long night there_

 _And these long long legs are damn near everywhere_

Other-Hunk tossed him one of the mind bands that Lance had neglected to grab in his haste to grab the floor. He nodded his head to his friend in thanks as he placed it on his head. Because of the rush that he was in, the band was half-way on his ear on one side of his face and well above his other ear on the other side. The lopsidedness didn't seem to bother him much though as he held out one hand in a 'stop' motion.

 _Hold up now. You look good, I will not lie_

 _But if you ask where I'm staying tonight, I gotta be like_

The color of the room flashed from bright white to a subdued blue with the shift of music from fast-paced to a slower, more relaxed pre-chorus.

 _Oh baby, naw baby, you got me all wrong baby_

 _My baby's already got all of my love_

The ambient light snapped into an odd orange glow that didn't seem to fit the song, but everyone was fine with it because suddenly Lance was _moving_. He jumped from one side to the other. Well, his feet did. He managed to keep his upper body and head from shifting even slightly on the beat.

 _So, naw, naw, honey I'm good_

 _I can have another but I probably should not_

 _I've got somebody at home, and if I stay I might not leave alone_

 _Naw, honey I'm good_

 _I can have another but I probably should not_

 _I've got to bid you adieu, to another I will stay true_

The lights became pure white and Lance abandoned his left to right hopping to partake in vertical hopping and clapping on the beat. At one point, he mimed taking a swig of some type of alcohol and shook his head in dissatisfaction. The rest of his watching audience giggled through the antics.

 _Now better men than me have failed_

 _Drinking from that unholy grail_

 _Now check it out, I've got her and she got me_

 _And you've got that ass, but I kindly gotta be like_

Lance had turned completely around, giving everyone an unobscured view of his ass in the tight medical uniform. He promptly slapped one cheek and fucking winked at them.

The rest of the song flew by and there was never a moment when Lance was still or quiet. He moved in such a way that it felt as if the song was playing to his dance. Not the other way around. With the conclusion of the song, he bowed theatrically with an overzealous, "Thank you. Thank you! I'll be here all week."

Pidge rolled her eyes, "Ha, ha." She said sarcastically, "You didn't beat Shiro and Allura's duet though."

Other-Lance scoffed playfully, "Um, I'm sorry, but I think that my song about remaining true to the one I love was a lot better than the couple singing about their relationship problems. Even if those problems don't exist in their actual relationship"

"I mean, at least Shiro and Allura are actually _in_ a relationship." Pidge retorted playfully.

Other-Lance froze and held up his hands, "Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait. I'm not dating anyone in this reality?" He glanced over at This-Lance, confusion written all over his face.

Everyone from this reality gaped. Silence filled the room. "Oh my god. I'm dating someone?" This-Lance finally broke the quiet, "I have a space-girlfriend?!"

"Space-boyfriend, but yeah." Other-Lance said casually and nodded, "You're seriously not dating him?"

"I'm not dating anyone! Oh my god. Is he cute? Is he funny? Is he hot? Who is he? Have I met him in this reality?" The sudden barrage of questions caught Other-Lance off guard and he struggled to form an answer.

Thankfully, Katie saved him, "I think that we should have him guess. Can it really be true love if your alternate-reality-persona doesn't know who they are?"

"I can guarantee that he knows my boyfriend, so ha."

"What'll happen to his boyfriend if the other Lance can't guess who he is?" Other-Keith asked trying to hide his smile, but he was failing miserably at it.

Nine shrugged, "Probably nothing, although he might lose a little faith in Lance."

"This seems like an awful idea." This-Lance said at the same time that literally everyone else was nodding their assent of , 'This seems like a great idea.'

They all sat on the floor together, their legs were crossed beneath them. For the most part, everyone was sitting across from themselves in two lines facing each other. The Lances were in the middle with the Hunks on one end and the green paladins on the other. Shiro stood off to the side with one arm hugging Allura to his chest; he was smiling down at all of them happily.

Other-Lance did raise his hand before they began though, "I just want the record to reflect that if my other personality does not guess who my boyfriend is, I still love him. This is an indisputable fact."

Katie rolled her eyes, "Oh my god, we know. You two are a disgustingly cute couple and we wouldn't have it any other way. Can we have him guess who you're dating now?"

"Great!" This-Lance rubbed his hands together enthusiastically, "How many guesses do I get?" He questioned.

"As many as you want."

He smiled, "Okay, first off Hunk!" He pointed to his best friend, "Are you straight in the other reality as well?" Both Hunks turned a delightful shade of red but nodded. "Well damn, there goes my first guess." He tapped his finger to his chin, "Is it that guy with the metal leg? Roller or something like that?"

"Rolo," Other-Keith corrected, "and no."

"Okay… so there was that one guy on Olkarion that was really funny, but I think he was too smart to date me. The guy that we met on that one really sandy planet. He was really tall and funny. I think his name was Jalka." Other-Lance shook his head twice. "Branthi, Venda, Mrinta?" Shake. Shake. Shake, "Trinit? The one guy whose name was a lot of clicking sounds and I couldn't pronounce it so I called him Carl?"

"Nope and nope." Other-Lance smiled, "I honestly didn't think it would be this hard."

This-Keith was looking at him, astonished, "When did you have the time to flirt with all of these guys? Don't we have the whole 'saving the universe' thing that we're doing."

Lance nodded, "You would be surprised at how many people come up to you. I hardly have to go searching to get rejected anymore. Now, what about Hanjintokarli? I actually learned his name. No? Malin? Kertik? Thane? Ani?"

Other Lance shook his head at every incorrect answer. It looked like he was fighting between a growing smile and a growing frown as the name of his boyfriend escaped his alter-ego.

"Babe, I don't think you've dropped enough clues," Other-Keith said to Other-Lance conversationally. He leaned into him and rested his head on the other's shoulder.

"There was the merman guy that I talked to, although he was _pretty_ weird-"

"Oh, my god." Other-Keith cut him off, "How are you so fucking oblivious?" He leaned up and captured Other-Lance's lips with his own. They both closed their eyes and pushed into the kiss, deflating softly as they melted into each other.

Everything got deadly silent as everyone looked directly at Lance and Keith. Keith and Lance. Keith and Lance _kissing_. No, it was well beyond kissing now. There was tongue involved and they both looked like they were genuinely enjoying it. Yep. There was Lance, smiling into the kiss. The kiss. Keith and Lance were _kissing_.

"Holy fuck," This-Lance said. He was staring wide-eyed at the two of them. "I'm dating Keith?" He said it as more of a question as if he and his rival (were they rivals in the other reality) hadn't just had a complete make-out session in front of him. "I'm dating Keith." He said again, only now he said it as if he was trying to convince himself.

He glanced over at Keith his-Keith. No, not _his_ -Keith. _This_ -Keith he told himself. This-Keith was similarly staring at the two of them, who had thankfully stopped sucking face. He was as red as the lion he used to fly.

"So, I take it, you two _aren't_ dating?" Other-Keith said cockily, leaning his head back on his-Lance's shoulder in a show of domesticity. He smiled at the two of them who were both getting redder by the moment. Keith allowed his eyes to drift shut.

Other-Lance smiled down at him and carded his fingers through his boyfriend's hair. Was Keith _humming_ and leaning into Lance's fingers? He totally was. As much as This-Lance hated to admit it, the sight in front of him was incredibly cute and he ached for someone to share his space with. Not Keith. But someone.

"No…" This-Keith strangled out, "We um… aren't dating."

"Oh, well, that's a shame." Other-Lance said as he leaned his head on top of Keith's and addressed the two of them, "You're missing out on some pretty phenomenal sex."

Keith's eyes snapped open, "You're not allowed to fucking _say_ that!" He punched Lance's arm a little harder than he probably should have. He was rapidly turning red from embarrassment.

"I'm sorry." Lance said, but there was a light shining in his eyes that said he really wasn't, "I just thought that if the other reality was considering it, then that should be one of the pros that they know about. I also have con's like the fact that Keith-" Keith clapped his hand over Lance's mouth.

"Another word about the blankets and I will push you off the fucking bed while you sleep." He threatened.

Other-Hunk gave a full-bellied laugh, "Keith, you might have just played yourself."

His eyes widened, "No, what are yo- Ugh, Lance, gross!" He pulled his hand back and wiped it on Lance's shirt. Lance was laughing maniacally and fell over on top of Keith, trapping him beneath his limbs. "You don't get to lick my hand and then pull this shit. Get off, you idiot!"

Keith pushed the dead weight off of him with only minor difficulties. Lance grunted, but soon went back to laughing, "Yeah, but you still love me and I think that counts as a victory."

"I'm really starting to doubt my life choices now." He deadpanned.

This-Keith finally came back to himself enough to create a coherent sentence, "So… wait… how long have you two… been…"

"Dating? Or fucking?" Other-Lance asked and was tossed into another bout of giggles when Keith's face turned the color of a tomato. Next to him, This-Lance choked on air and turned a shade of crimson to rival Keith.

"Oh my god, Lance. Stop, you're going to break them." Other-Keith placed a hand on Lance's prosthetic leg. "And the answers are since Shiro left in our universe and one month after we got together." He answered helpfully.

"Not to be rude," This-Lance asked, "But, like, _why_?"

Other-Lance cocked his head, "I don't know what you mean. Are you asking why we're together, why we chose each other, what we see in each other? All of the above?" This-Lance nodded. "Great. I can do all of the above."

Nine groaned from where she sat, "No, please god no. I'm leaving the room. Things are going to get too goddamn cute and I'm going to implode." She looked at Shiro, "Is it possible that I could get a room to kill myself in while these two talk about each other and remind us all that we don't have significant others of our own."

Other-Lance stuck his tongue out at her, "You're just jealous that I have someone to cuddle with." To prove his point, he wrapped his arms around his-Keith's waist and squeezed.

"Retch." She said monotonically, "If someone tried to hug me like that, I would cut them. I'm honestly surprised Keith hasn't tried to do it yet."

Lance smiled, "Actually, he did try the first time we cuddled in bed. In my defense, I was not aware that he kept a knife under his pillow. Anyways, I was going to tell myself why I love my boyfriend."

He turned back to the eight of the paladins still sitting in a circle while Shiro went over to her and asked if she was serious about wanting to know where her room was, to which she replied, "Of course I meant it. I've heard them tell each other how much they love each other twenty times over."

Katie and Other-Hunk both got up to leave the group at the same time, making some excuse about needing sleep. The five of them including Allura walked out of the room to show them where they would be staying.

"Well, would you look at that." Other-Lance reminisced, "Looks like we lost half of our audience." He smiled at the four of them that had stayed, "Hold on, I'm gonna move because this is really uncomfortable." He meandered his way behind Keith so that his chin was resting on his shoulder from behind and their legs tangled together comfortably. "Much better."

 **A/N: Okay, yeah this is a bit of an abrupt ending to this chapter, but I thought it was best to cut it right before all of the gushy gushy 'Why I love you' parts which will be featured in the next chapter. I also swear that the next chapter will be NOWHERE NEAR as long as this one. Honestly, I'm surprised I put out such a long chapter... Anyways, as always, please leave a review if you liked it, or even if you didn't. Tell me how you feel about the characters and descriptions and if you think that there's something missing or something like that. Until Next Chapter!**


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